


Garlic and Cold Spots

by nightmares06, PL1



Series: Brothers Adopted [4]
Category: Supernatural, The Borrowers
Genre: Borrowers - Freeform, Case Fic, Cold Spots, G/T, Gen, Minor Character Death, Salt And Burn, Size Kink, Spirit - Freeform, Spirits, TINY - Freeform, The Borrowers - Freeform, corpse, g/t writing, garlic - Freeform, giant, off screen character death, vengeful spirit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-23 05:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9642563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightmares06/pseuds/nightmares06, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PL1/pseuds/PL1
Summary: Near a forgettable motel in Breckenridge, Colorado, people are dying. Crushed beneath furniture and falling cars, the stories form a clear circle around the Knights Inn. Now Dean and his two tiny brothers, Sam and Jacob, are on their way to unravel the case and help all the motels’ residents– down to the very smallest.





	1. The Dusty Brothers

Dean paged calmly through the newspaper as he waited.  
  
The washers nearby thrummed a steady beat. Occasionally a clatter of a pant button would echo through one of the machines washing up the sum total of all the clothes he owned excepting the ones he wore on his back. It was a sparse life, the hunting life, but it never bothered him. When the clothes were bloodied or torn beyond repair, he'd simply use them while he worked on the car, or for cleaning his weapons. When the grime became too much, he'd retire them to a dumpster and move on to the next set of clothing, acquired at thrift shops. The system worked for him and there was no need to change it.  
  
Sam and Jacob didn't have any clothes in the wash, but that was for other reasons. They didn't have the option to go out and buy clothing at the closest store for themselves. The only thing Dean would be able to find that was even _close_ to their sizes was doll clothing, and that tended to be tacky, harsh fabric. It wasn't made to actually be _worn_ , but displayed. Past Dean pranking them by replacing their clothes with doll clothes (a thought that had occurred to him more than once), there was no reason they'd ever buy doll clothing.  
  
If they put their clothes in the wash with his, even in a small bag made to keep delicates separate, a lot of extra wear would be put on the thin cloth. The shirts and pants would go threadbare much faster, and they'd have to find a way to replace the clothes. No, the two smaller brothers contented themselves with handwashing what they could. Once in awhile Dean would try and help, but more often than not he was chased off when he knocked an absolutely miniscule sock to the ground.  
  
Dean circled an article in the paper that put up red flags to the part of him always watching for a case, then distractedly chewed at the pen. With any luck, this was worth checking out. He hated to spend time waiting around.  
  
He _knew_ there were things out there lurking around, waiting for a chance to attack, but he couldn't _see_ them. It made him antsy, edgy. A case would help him focus.  
  
While he was pondering the paper, a quarter slid out from underneath a washer. A smile quirked at the corner of Dean's mouth at the sight. He put the pen down, leaning over to pick up the coin and add it to the pile resting between his legs while he straddled the hard wooden bench. It was doubling as a table for his paper.  
  
"Only four more and we've got enough for all the batches tonight!" Dean announced jokingly. "You two must be on a roll down there!"  
  
Dean wasn't wrong.  
  
Sam and Jacob, exploring the landscape beneath the row of washing machines, had found quite a few interesting things. Clouds made of dark grey lint bigger than both of them formed a maze of fluff and dust, which coated their clothes and hair; they'd need to shake themselves off once they emerged. The pattern of the linoleum tiles was just as hard to see as that on the open floor, though rather then faded from years of foot traffic it was coated in the same dust. Years of fuzzy buildup waited down there in the shadows.  
  
Even though they were small, with Sam clocking in at four inches even, the pair had to stoop a little as they navigated under the hulking machines. The washers were raised on sturdy legs with simple grates fixed to the front to hide the dusty mess below. The loud machines roared overhead, but they were used to everything being _loud._  
  
It was perfect for exploring. They couldn't be seen as they made their way, but they'd still be able to squeeze under the grate if they needed to make a rapid escape. The machine they currently walked under rattled despite not being on. Down the line, another machine had begun a particularly vigorous spin cycle on Dean's jeans that the two smaller brothers could feel shaking everything around it, including the floor beneath their feet and the machine above their heads. The air filled with the thrum.  
  
Even the late hour didn't faze them. They'd normally be back in a motel room right that moment, either looking at the computer, watching some TV, or getting into bed under the nightstand, but the time had come for Dean to wash his clothes. That meant an entirely new environment for Sam and Jacob to check out. They might have visited laundromats before shrinking, but now their size opened up all the possibilities underneath the boxy machines. Not to mention all the dropped quarters they had been able to find down there.  
  
With no one else around, they had the freedom and safety to go looking for new things. Even if someone else decided to come in at this late hour, Dean was right out there. He'd never let anything happen to them, and they both knew it. The hunter was one of the largest humans around, and not one to be trifled with. Dean had sworn to look after them no matter what.  
  
Jacob stooped lower to push a dustbunny out of the way and picked up a black elastic hair tie. Brushing it off, he held it out to Sam with a smirk. "Your hair's been getting pretty long, maybe you oughta hold onto this," he quipped.  
  
Sam gave him a flat look. While his hair was indeed longer than Jacob’s short brown hair, and relatively longer than Dean’s spike (in reality, the hair probably spiked up about two inches, at least, half Sam and Jacob’s height), it was only just past his ears. Fluffy brown locks that currently were sticking out with a dustbunny clinging to his bangs.  
  
Sam shook his hair out, grabbing the elastic away from Jacob. “That’s so funny I forgot to laugh,” he said. Spotting another quarter buried under lint a few inches away, Sam darted over to it. This time, he kicked it with all his might, making it clatter and catch some air. It ended up rolling to the center of the room, crashing straight into Dean’s boot.  
  
Sam grinned triumphantly. “Farthest quarter yet,” he shot back at Jacob.  
  
At the same time, their older brother’s voice rang out overhead, “Three more! At this rate I won’t need to bring money with me to wash clothes anymore. You two are like a secret weapon.” Dean’s hand came down into view, snatching the quarter off of the ground and into his powerful grasp with ease.  
  
While the hand whisked into the air with the newly-acquired money, Sam took advantage of a momentary distraction and tossed the elastic over Jacob’s chest.  
  
And yanked against him as hard as he could with the elastic.  
  
Jacob was caught off guard by the sudden tug and stumbled aside in surprise. "Wha?" he blurted, though in the practiced quieter tone after a few years living in hiding. He twisted against the hair band, but it partially pinned his arms and he couldn’t counter Sam's move or shove him away.  
  
Jacob had to snicker. Of course he'd be ambushed like this. He gave Sam his weapon. "Good work," he said, though there was a defiant kind of smirk on his face. Jacob was harder to restrain than that, thanks to an unnatural strength that he had discovered sometime after being cursed. While everyone at their scale seemed to have greater proportional strength, Jacob left even that far behind him.  
  
"C'mon, I have to get my chance to break your quarter-throwing record. Dean's still in the red and you're messing around? For shame," Jacob shook his head in mock disappointment, though he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. He curled his elbows to grab hold of the elastic and planted his feet before yanking back on it, aiming to either pull it from Sam's grip or make his brother stumble in return.  
  
“Gah!” The elastic was yanked out of Sam’s grasp, sending it snapping back towards Jacob. Sam was nowhere near as prepared as his little brother for the backlash, stumbling forward a few steps before he managed to catch his balance.  
  
His attempt failed, Sam straightened and he brushed off a particularly large dustbunny from his shoulder, composing himself. “You’ve got plenty of work to do to beat _that_ quarter throw,” he bragged shamelessly. Dean was sitting in the middle of the room, leaving him a good six feet away from the smaller brothers. It would take the hunter seconds to cross (otherwise he’d probably be leaning against one of the machines they were underneath to satisfy his drive to hover protectively whenever he could), but would take Sam and Jacob a minimum of ten or twenty seconds to make it to him.  
  
Jacob glanced out from under the washing machine while he pulled the hair tie back over his head. It _was_ a long way to go. A wide expanse of floor that normally would be beyond daunting to consider crossing at any point. At least they knew no one else was in the laundromat, so if they really needed to, they could run straight to Dean.  
  
"Oh, I'll break the record," Jacob assured Sam after a moment. "Soon as I find ..." he trailed off, pushing aside dustbunnies as he searched for another of the silvery coins. He had to suppress a sneeze from all the dust they were kicking up, but he did find what he was looking for in due time.  
  
Jacob picked up the wide disk and glanced over the face embossed on its surface. He prepared to fling it like a frisbee, hoping to get it at least as far as Dean's boot, still in view despite the low visibility from their angle.  
  
Jacob paused, getting an idea when he looked at the hair tie still clutched in his other hand. With a grin, he knelt and planted one boot on it, stretching it straight up. After fumbling a little, Jacob managed to pull the makeshift slingshot back with the quarter, and took aim. Thinking there was no way he'd lose this friendly little competition of theirs, he let go, firing the quarter out from under the washing machine.  
  
It didn't go _exactly_ as he planned. It wobbled in the air and clattered against the floor, somehow managing to roll on its side for a few feet and swerve wide of where Dean sat. Jacob chuckled at the miss, shrugging to admit that he'd missed his shot by a country mile. "Well, technically that one _did_ travel pretty far," he pointed out to Sam, standing up again (as much as he could under the low ceiling).  
  
Sam rolled his eyes. “I _guess_ we can count it as a tie,” he said dryly. “I’ll let your awful aim slide just this once. But you might end up with Dean trying to teach you how to aim the next time he gets the chance. Since, y’know, you can’t hit the broadside of a barn and all that.”  
  
The hunter out in the open shifted his position on the bench while Sam was talking. The boot closest to them scraped along the floor, and this time when Dean’s hand came into view, he was clearly stretching to reach the wayward coin. A fingertip the size of either smaller brother’s head aimed to brush at its edge.  
  
“Did one of you get into the whiskey before we got here?” came a curious tone. Dean caught the coin just at the edge, dragging it along the floor so he’d be able to reach it without having to get up.  
  
The motion of the hand paused when Sam shouted his own message towards the center, going against all of his embedded instincts to let a _human_ know where they were. “Jacob just naturally throws like that!”  
  
His outcry resulted in an amused chuckle as the coin was lifted up between two fingers. “Maybe he can work on that with the last two coins we need.”  
  
"Eeeeveryone's a critic," Jacob drawled, throwing his hands up and rolling his eyes in exasperation. With a very put upon sigh, he set to searching for more quarters. They had already covered quite a bit of ground in their exploration underneath the many washing machines. It was amazing how much change had been dropped, not to mention the various knick knacks they'd already passed by. Part of their instincts said to collect every item they found, but they resisted. They weren’t desperate anymore.  
  
Jacob abandoned the hair tie, since it had betrayed him. It landed atop a gnarly looking ball of lint, most likely cleared out from one of the dryers in the laundromat after a few too many cycles. Such things were commonplace down here. There was more material in that one mound of lint than there was in all the clothes on their backs.  
  
After hunting around a few more dust piles, Jacob found another quarter. This time he threw it like he had been doing, getting a light spin on it like a frisbee. It skidded across the tile, sliding to a stop short of Dean's boot. Jacob gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Seriously? If it's not one thing it's another," he complained. In truth, the miss didn’t bother him very much, but still he rolled his eyes.  
  
Sam snickered, going over to where another glint of silver was poking out from under a mess of lint. He ignored the sight of Dean plucking up the latest quarter. “You’ll just have to practice to be as awesome as I am.”  
  
He hefted it up, staring down at the face on the coin for a minute. Occasionally it came to him that this should seem odd, holding up a coin a third his size. These days, it was normal. It didn’t bother him at all, unlike when he’d first woken up after being cursed. Seeing even a penny back then, a penny the size of a flattened soccer ball, had terrified him. Then came the revelation that _everything_ was oversized like that.  
  
Now, things were different. Not only was he adjusted to his size, he had someone who understood exactly how it felt _and_ a human that watched out for them. Dean might feel a little left out of adventures like this, but none of them would change his size for the world. It was exactly what they needed.  
  
Sam offered the last quarter they needed to Jacob. “How about you give it another shot and break my record?” he said with a grin.  
  
Jacob took the coin with a smirk. "Well I have to at least _try_ or you'll never let us hear the end of it, will you?" he quipped. Still, the light encouragement in Sam's words was not lost on Jacob, and he found himself hoping he could manage it. He’d always looked up to Sam, all his years at cursed size.  
  
He crouched, pushing aside the nearest dust ball to get a clear shot. He put as much power as he could into his throw this time, which was a decent amount considering his extra helping of strength. Jacob had even managed to almost lift a vase off of himself and escape being trapped underneath it.  
  
By Dean, no less. Even then, before Dean had decided to accept Jacob into his family, before he'd realized Sam was alive, Dean had been impressed by the feat. Jacob had surprised himself there, and was still proud of the accomplishment even though he hadn't succeeded in time. Something several times his weight was simple to lift if he only got the right angle on it.  
  
With that strength behind it, the quarter skidded across the floor with barely a whisper of sound before skidding just barely past the heel of Dean's boot. Jacob grinned, pumping his fist in triumph. "Ha. Made it," he said, glancing over at Sam to make sure he'd seen.  
  
"There's hope for you yet," Sam said with a smirk.  
  


* * *

  
Dean watched the last coin skid out from under the washing machine with a smile. It was definitely handy to have two pint-size brothers around to find the things that people lost. With any luck, by the time they left the laundromat, they'd have a collection of quarters for the next trip, or even for tolls on the road.  
  
"Just in time," he announced as he leaned over to grab the last coin from the ground. The buzzer on the washers went off, indicating how true his words were.  
  
Dean scooped all his brothers’ findings into a hand and stood. He was careful as he approached the line of washers against the wall, keeping a sharp eye out for either of his _little_ little brothers. They were easy enough to overlook if he wasn't paying attention, and he refused to ever drop his guard. It would only take a second's mistake to get either of them injured, and he'd promised to never let that happen. He wanted their trust. Never their fear.  
  
Not again.  
  
He busied himself switching out the clothes. There were two washers worth, so he took the time to move them over one load at a time. The dryer's lint tray was full, displaying exactly how much the other patrons cared about getting their clothes dry in a timely fashion, not to mention just plain being a fire hazard. He rolled his eyes, slightly disgusted as he cleaned the lint out for his load. It got dropped into the trash with no further ado.  
  
The quarters that had shot out from under the line of washers and dryers was just enough to cover what he needed, so as he started up the second washer, he called out "So, who's up to find another batch of quarters? We could always use extra," with a grin. They both seemed to love the chance to explore, even somewhere as dark and dusty as underneath the washers in a laundromat.  
  
Jacob, already near the edge of the washing machine they currently waited under, knelt to peer out. He hesitated only a moment, making doubly sure that no other humans were in the laundromat, before poking his head out from under the machine to send a look all the way up at Dean.  
  
It used to be absolutely terrifying, this angle of him. Dean was already tall compared to many humans. Standing on the ground at a little under four inches tall was something else entirely, and if Jacob didn't know he could trust the man, he'd be skittering back for the cover under the washer. Knowing that intense pair of eyes could find him easily didn't faze him.  
  
"What, that wasn't enough for you?" he called, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "All that work and he wants more quarters, Sam."  
  
Dean smirked as he saw Sam poke his head out next to Jacob. He knelt down, bringing their perspective of him to a slightly more manageable level, though he still felt obnoxiously big with them so small. “Hey, you two gotta earn your keep _somehow_ ,” he joked. He reached out a hand, lightly brushing a fingertip across both of their heads to ruffle their hair. Tiny bits of dust and lint floated down, shaken free by his antics.  
  
Dean grimaced as he took his hand back, pretending to shake off the dust. “It’s like I’ve got two dust devils for brothers,” he bemoaned. “You better shake off after you’re done if you plan on riding the Dean express back to the car.”  
  
Putting his hands on his knees, Dean pushed himself to a stand. “Maybe you two can get something from the vending machine if you find enough quarters. And you won’t even have to snitch it.”  
  
Jacob brushed his own hand through his hair a few times to shake out more dust. It was remarkable how much fell loose to the floor, but then again they were practically rolling in lint down there. "Who knew earning our room and food could be so dusty," he lamented with a smirk.  
  
Ducking back under the washing machine, he shrugged. "Might as well keep looking, right? We might get enough for a whole Hershey bar!" he said with a grin to Sam. Chocolate was something they'd had to go without for a long time before Dean came along. Now they had access to blocks of the stuff that weighed more than they did. Besides, exploring was fun so far, so why stop now?


	2. Shotgun

Out of the corner of his eye, Dean spotted the other two slip out from underneath one of the washers.  
  
He grinned in their direction, but didn’t react otherwise. He was in the middle of pulling his clothes out of the dryer now that the cycle was over. It was past 1am, and high time for them all to head to a motel room to get some rest.  
  
Sam and Jacob were still brushing themselves off as he came back over to the bench where his laundry bag waited. It was one of his older duffels, and by the time the clothing was stuffed inside, it was overflowing.  
  
He patted the pile of change they’d found for him. “You got more than enough for your prize,” he said proudly. “Any special requests?”  
  
Jacob stifled a yawn, and then brushed off a piece of lint that stubbornly held onto his sleeve. Sam hadn't fared much better than he had, in the forest of dust beneath the machines. Apparently the people who cleaned out the lint filters saw fit to just brush the stuff under the machines instead of taking a few steps to throw it away.  
  
The trashcan was quite a trek away for him and Sam, but it would be so easy for a human to get to it. Sometimes, Jacob was amazed at the way people cut corners like that, and he wondered how many times he had done something like that without even realizing it. Probably more than he'd want to admit. At least, for people like him and Sam, that kind of negligence _helped._ It meant supplies they could use were in easy reach.  
  
He glanced up at the bench, though he couldn't see their total pile of found cash from the floor. It certainly felt like they'd combed every inch and found an impressive number of coins. He grinned and looked over at Sam, knowing he probably wouldn't chime in. Ever since they'd joined Dean in his traveling hunting profession, Sam had had a harder time than Jacob asking for things he liked or wanted.  
  
Jacob was working on helping with that. Dean was clearly willing to help them out, and a resource like that was rare to people like them. So he called up, "Sam wanted a bag of M&Ms, how about it?"  
  
“H-hey!” Sam blurted. He elbowed Jacob in the side. “I never said that!”  
  
Dean did his best to keep a straight face, suspecting _exactly_ what had happened, and glad Jacob was willing to give up the choice for something Sam would want. No matter what he did, his younger brother refused to ask for something he actually wanted. He would go along with whatever Dean or Jacob decided for him, no matter that Dean told him it wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t even like either of them ate a lot. Actually asking for something was anathema to Sam.  
  
Instead, Jacob, who’d spent the last three years with Sam and probably heard all about the foods that he missed from being a human, was making sure to ask for what _Sam_ wanted instead. Not every time, but he made sure to emphasize that it was one of Sam’s favorite things when he did. With that, Dean was doing his best to memorize what they both liked. If Sam wasn’t going to ask, he wouldn’t _have_ to.  
  
“One bag of M&M’s, coming right up,” Dean said with a wink to Jacob.   
  
Exasperated, Sam rolled his eyes up at the older hunter as Dean collected the coins into a hand. “You are _both_ impossible.”  
  
Jacob shrugged before elbowing Sam right back. "And aren't you lucky," he teased with a grin. "I mean, it's pretty much my job to keep things interesting for ya, right?" For someone who had been an only child growing up, Jacob had taken to the younger brother role quickly. Sam had taken him under his wing, and provided a welcomed sense of familiarity in an otherwise terrifying new view of the world.  
  
All teasing aside, Jacob was happy to help Sam grow more comfortable letting his wants be known. He had done so much for Jacob and this felt like the least he could do. Sam had been stuck at their small stature for more than half of his life, and he saw things differently. Jacob was stuck halfway between his old mindset and the one Sam had learned over his time living with the curse. He could bridge the gap.  
  
Once Dean had the money in hand and made his way over to the looming vending machine with its smudged glass front, Jacob flipped open his satchel. Thankfully no mini dustbunnies had managed to worm their way into his bag, courtesy of the secure clasp their adopted father had worked onto the leather. Jacob drew out his coiled climbing rope with a piece of bent metal on one end.  
  
Uncoiling the rope, Jacob nodded towards the bench, where the clothes bag still dominated most of the space on top of it. "How about we race to the top of the bench to decide who's in charge of divvying up the M&Ms you never said you wanted?" he suggested, knowing full well that he'd get his ass kicked in a competition like that one.  
  
Sam heaved a world-weary sigh, but took out his own hook. A glint of challenge sparked in his eye as the sound of Dean putting change into the machine echoed in the still room, one quarter after another. “You’re on,” he shot back.  
  
With no one else but their human brother in the room, it was an opportunity to test out their skills without having to be afraid of being seen mid-climb. After Jacob’s cheeky comments and telling Dean what he wanted, there was no way Sam would hold back.  
  
He didn’t wait for any signal, tossing his hook into the air. It easily caught onto the bag that loomed overhead. “But you’ll have to work hard to ever keep up with me!”  
  
Jacob snickered and threw his hook into the air after Sam's, almost missing. It slid along the material before catching the edge of a pocket. Of course, even just a few seconds was a considerable head start for Sam. Jacob hadn't expected to fall behind _that_ quickly, but he accepted his karma for teasing.  
  
He tugged on the line to make sure it wouldn't slip free in the middle of his climb, and then hauled himself off the linoleum tile. Jacob was already an inch or two behind Sam's progress, and it didn't improve much. "Y'know, _someday_ I'll figure out how to climb that fast," he called up.  
  
He ended up pulling himself over the side of the bench after Sam had already made it. "Apparently not today," he groused, though there was a grin on his face despite the complaint. "That settles it. You're in charge of the M&Ms, you earned it."  
  
“You --” Sam paused the motion of winding his cord up around his arms, the words of his boast freezing as it sunk into his mind what Jacob had just done. He’d not only had Dean go get Sam’s favorite candy, he’d also put _Sam_ in charge of the M &M’s. “You little shit,” he said slowly in realization as the triumph of his victory wore off. “That’s exactly what you had planned from the beginning, isn’t it?”  
  
A loud clatter filled the air as the candy fell from where it was kept in the machine, followed swiftly by a bag of chips. The hunter gathered up their prizes, bending down so he could reach into the machine.  
  
Jacob flicked his wrist to knock his own hook loose from where it hung on the bag, catching it deftly. He shrugged and grinned, setting to the task of coiling up his rope of strong twine. "I was actually winging it, but it turned out even better than I expected," he admitted. Luck (and Sam's vastly superior climbing skill) had worked together to give Jacob just the timing he needed to set things up.  
  
"Really, though," Jacob added in a quieter tone while Dean gathered up the snacks. "I remember you said at one point that you missed chocolate and we haven't had much since Dean came around, so ... I thought this was a good time as any to have some."  
  
After everything Sam had done, patiently teaching Jacob things he need to know to survive, and being an understanding support in the last three crazy years, he deserved a little luxury. Especially one as easy for Dean to procure as M&Ms. Jacob couldn’t go over and retrieve them himself, but he could make sure Sam got them anyway.  
  
Sam dropped his voice to the same level. The last thing he wanted was Dean hearing how he felt-- like the odd one out, ill-adjusted to being around a human all the time. “It’s just… it doesn’t feel _right._ ” He shrugged helplessly as Dean started on his way over, his casual, bowlegged walk more subdued so late in the night. “It’s not like I’ll ever eat everything he gets, so I figure I might as well just take what you guys have.”  
  
Dean reached the bench as Sam finished, kneeling down. He held out a hand for them. In his other hand was the snacks he’d grabbed. “I vote we find a place to stay, then break into these before we hit the hay. Sound like a plan?”  
  
Sam gave him back a forced grin. “Works for me.” The grin became real when his eyes landed on the chocolate colored wrapper in his brother’s hand.  
  
"Yep, same here," Jacob agreed, glad to see that Sam at least perked up at the sight of the bag of candy. Jacob lit up too, still amazed that a bag of M&Ms was that big to them now. The wrapper would be like a sleeping bag if it was empty. Considering he and Sam topped out at a weight of mere ounces each, that would last them quite a while. Or it might, if they managed to keep Dean off the coveted snack. After all, the human could finish off the bag in a matter of minutes if they let him.  
  
Luckily, and to their great surprise, Dean listened when they scolded him. Really listened.  
  
Jacob stepped onto Dean's hand, his boots sinking into the leathery surface. He was still getting used to that. A platform that they regularly used to get around had a pulse, had give to it, and produced heat. It was one of the many things about living with the curse that amazed him every time he paused to think about it.  
  
"And Dean? Try not to pick a place where there's a call girl taking clients right next door like last week. Motel walls are not thick enough for that." As someone who spent the last three years living in the walls, Jacob was well aware that cheaper places didn't bother with a lot of insulation between rooms. It didn't lend as much privacy as some folks clearly thought it did.  
  
Dean snorted. He waited patiently as Sam followed Jacob onto his hand. The feeling of small boots against his hand threatened to make his hand twitch, and he forced himself to suppress it as much as he could. “I didn’t see _you_ offering any suggestions, half-pint,” he said, lightly nudging Jacob in the shoulder with his other hand.  
  
Before either of them could react, Dean lightly dropped them on top of the clothing that overflowed from the duffel bag and tossed one of his t-shirts overtop their forms. “Better hang on,” he warned with a smirk as he hefted up the bag. He tossed the snacks a few inches from them on the pile.  
  
With the crinkling of the snack wrappers sounding around them and the warm, fresh-from-the-dryer clothes all but surrounding them, it was tough to get any bearings. Especially once Dean picked up the duffel and started with that characteristic swagger of his. Sam and Jacob tumbled together briefly, both of them grateful they were on a softer surface and weren't likely to be hurt badly by any jostling.  
  
"Okay, I'll take the blame for this one," Jacob conceded, managing to get a grip on the weave of the shirt underneath them with both hands. They were still under another huge piece of cloth, with only pinpricks of light seeping through onto the tiny passengers Dean carried with him.  
  
It was a good way to keep them hidden, but then again a _pocket_ would have been just fine. This is what Jacob got for teasing Dean. He was a caring big brother to the end, taking Jacob in when his own family turned him away, but he was also no stranger to shenanigans exactly like this.  
  
“There are worse ways to ride,” Sam conceded. The sway of the bag against Dean’s side was actually lulling, a lot like the car when it was on the road. Even sitting in a pocket could be relaxing, and they’d both fallen asleep inside the pockets of whatever shirt Dean was wearing more than once. It was odd how much a feeling of safety could relax a person.  
  
The door of the laundromat opened and a bell rang above them with a tinkle. Some cold air made its way down into the fabric past the barrier that Dean had draped over them and Sam found himself hunkering down. Night was in full swing, and neither he nor Jacob had the thick skin that could insulate them against the cold like Dean did. Even their jackets weren’t made to keep out the cold the same way that Dean’s was. They were just too thin. Any fabric thick enough to really block the cold would be too thick to wear.  
  
The Impala was close by since there were no other patrons in the laundromat, so before they knew it, Dean was placing the bag down on the seat. Light poured in overhead as the fabric was lifted away, and they found themselves on the passenger’s side of the car.  
  
Sam brushed his hair down from the staticky mess the short ride from the laundromat had made it. “Are we actually riding shotgun?” he couldn’t help asking with a surprised grin. Though he’d claimed Dean’s right shoulder himself and dubbed it ‘riding shotgun,’ neither he nor Jacob could actually sit in the passenger’s side seat without the risk of flying off the leather bench of the Impala.  
  
This way, they had plenty of handholds, and were sitting on a warm pile of laundry that would cushion them from any damage. The only way they’d get knocked around would be if they tumbled into each other, or managed to bump into a button on one of Dean’s shirts.  
  
Dean grinned back. “We might as well take advantage while no one’s awake, am I right?”  
  
"Definitely!" Jacob grinned, as enthused by the idea as Sam was. It was a surprise, and a pleasant one, and it brought back numerous memories of sitting shotgun in a car at normal size. It stood apart from the real experience he remembered, now that he was sitting on a pile of gigantic laundry and couldn't really see out the windows, but he didn’t mind. Chances like this were rare.  
  
Dean always took care to make them feel normal. Accepted. He didn't let himself become condescending towards his much smaller family members, and he actually _listened_ to them. It was unlike anything they'd always been taught.  
  
From the first day he was cursed, Jacob had heard lecture after lecture about how dangerous humans were. They were big and didn't pay attention and they could pose a deadly threat without even knowing. Worse, they were also very sure of their own superiority. They'd never consider that the smaller people just trying to get by were exactly that: _people._ Jacob and Sam and other small people like them were literally beneath the notice of humans.  
  
Dean wasn't like that at all. Even when teasing he made sure not to be rough with them. He'd even taken a few scoldings from Sam straight to heart, looking like a puppy that got bopped on the face. The first time Jacob saw that, he couldn't believe his eyes.  
  
The car rocked once as Dean made his way around it to get into the driver side. While he settled himself, Jacob bunched up some fabric to lean against it and relax. "Pretty successful trip. Dean's shirts are clean and we collected more than our weight in money. How many people can say that?" he quipped.  
  
“Too bad you two are dustballs over there,” Dean pointed out ruefully, looking at the dust stains on his clean shirts. “I shoulda just dropped you in the sink before we left so my clothes had a chance at staying clean for more than a minute.” Jacob didn't bother trying to hide it when he rolled his eyes. They'd gotten rid of most of the dust anyway.  
  
Dean started up the car, hiding a smile so he could at least _pretend_ annoyance. Soft music started up as he shifted out of park, toned down so that the small passengers sitting next to him could listen without hurting their fragile ears. He’d found even if he was talking normal sometimes they’d flinch at the sound. Small ears, delicate hearing. He did his best to tone himself down, though it didn’t always work. He was trying, and slowly getting the hang of it.  
  
The car was pointed in the direction of the news article he’d been going over in the laundromat while Sam and Jacob had been off collecting their quarters. It was less than an hour out. They could settle in at the motel and start off the next day checking to see if it was actually a case or not.  
  
“Sit back and relax, we’ll be there soon,” Dean announced as he hit the highway.   
  
“We’ve got work to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Jacob ride shotgun for the first time since their curse, and they're on the road again! To new adventures!
> 
> **Next:** February 14 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


	3. You Two Are Free to Leave

Jacob took the advice and relaxed, since it _had_ been a lot of walking around at a stooped angle to find all those coins. He anticipated their backs would be sore by the time they woke up, no matter that they slept on piles of soft cloth most nights.  
  
After he settled in, he keyed in on something else Dean said. _Work to do_ could only mean one thing for the three of them. After getting a couple hunts behind them, Jacob and Sam were learning a lot from Dean. Their big brother was a wealth of knowledge on hunting.  
  
"You found a case? What is it?" he asked, curious. Even as he turned to look up at Dean, he settled into the makeshift seat he'd created for himself, getting comfortable for the ride to the next motel. The ride in shotgun, something he was sure Sam was just as happy about.  
  
Dean pulled an article out of his jacket. “I was reading up while you two were off goofing,” he said with a wink. He knew as well as they did that they’d help out a lot with their hunt for coins. It was good to not have to worry about money for the laundromat with them around. Just one more thing that they could help out with in their own unique fashion.  
  
He ignored a glare sent up at him from Sam as he held the article out for his brother to take. He’d torn it from the paper as soon as he was certain of where he was going next. Sam held it up, trying to catch the light from the moon above as he read over a piece of paper the same size as himself.  
  
“It definitely looks like our type of thing,” Dean went on. In the dark, they might not be able to read it over. “There’s been a few strange deaths all located around a motel in Breckenridge, Colorado. People being crushed. One was moving furniture, there was a guy working in an auto shop. There’s at least one witness that said there was no one else close to the car when it went down. The guy didn’t stand a chance. And every single death is right next door to the motel in town.”  
  
Jacob winced and sat up to help Sam hold the article flat on their rumpled landscape of clothes. Passing streetlights and the moon gave glimpses of the words, and of the thick red marks from Dean circling the article as a case. The fact that the events were all around the same place was one thing, and the _way_ they'd all happened just screamed something strange.  
  
Since being reduced in size, Jacob had a particular respect and fear for the word 'crushed.’ He and Sam were small enough to be squashed by pure accident if they got in the way of the wrong casual movement by a human. When Dean had captured Jacob, he hadn't used enough pressure to do any damage, but it was terrifyingly easy to notice that he had plenty of power to do so with those immense fingers coiled about Jacob’s small body. It would only have taken one small twitch to squeeze the life out of his chest.  
  
Something that could even crush humans had a lot of force behind it. "Think it's a spirit, then?" he asked aloud. He remembered seeing Dean go flying across a room and smashing a table just from a pissed off ghost flicking its wrist. The ghost of some poor bastard who died in some weird way could easily decide to go knocking things onto people in their anger. "Maybe that motel is shadier than anyone realizes."  
  
Dean nodded along as they read over the article. He absently tapped his fingers on the steering wheel along with the beat of _Smoke on the Water_. “Unless some werewolf has been bench pressing a few hundred pounds of weight _and_ has extreme ninja skills, that’s what I’m thinking. There’s always the chance it’s something new though, so we’ll have to keep a sharp eye out. It could always be a witch hexing people, too, so we’ll have to check for hexbags at the same time.”  
  
Sam skimmed the article, noting the mention of the motel. “It’s like the _Knights Inn_ is the epicenter,” he said thoughtfully. He glanced up at Dean, already suspecting where they’d be staying. “Is that where we’re heading?”  
  
“Yeah, I figured it would be the best way to search. But don’t worry. We can put down a line of salt by the doors and the windows. The room will be our bunker while we’re there. Ain’t no spirit getting in while I’m around.”  
  
Jacob chuckled. Dean was nothing if not thorough in his efforts to make sure nothing befell any of them while on the hunt. They were walking right into the middle of a bunch of strange deaths. It could hardly be called paranoia.  
  
"Sounds like a plan, I'd say we're golden." Jacob tried a little longer to read the rest of the article but once they were on the road between towns and the only lights came from the moon and the Impala's headlights, he sat back again.  
  
Sam gave up as well, folding up the article so it didn’t get lost. It was tucked into his satchel, taking up most of the space leftover for his findings. The windshield showed a wide view of the night sky as Dean sped along; it was different from the usual view up on his shoulder, but not bad. Both smaller brothers could relax and watch the open sky.  
  


* * *

  
They made good time with no one else on the road to impede the Impala's trek down the highway. Jacob managed to doze off on the way, but when he rolled to the side from the car turning into a motel parking lot, he was awake again. He squinted at the sign as it briefly passed overhead.  
  
"Should we hide?" he asked Dean, since he couldn't see himself whether anyone else was around at this hour.  
  
Dean considered the outside. “You should be fine while I check in,” he decided. “If you see any shadows coming close, you’ve got plenty to hide under right there. This should only take a few minutes for check-in and there’s not a soul in sight out there.”  
  
The Impala shook as he got out, and the door slammed shut behind him, sealing off the younger brothers into their own world in the car. So late at night, Sam was barely holding on to consciousness. He watched the sky through heavily lidded eyes.  
  
Dean got back in what must have been five minutes. Either that, or Sam nodded off again while he was gone. The car was parked out front their new room, and again Dean collected the duffel bag from the passenger’s side. He draped a shirt over Sam and Jacob to keep them out of sight without having to make them move. They hardly bothered to complain; they were relaxed and safe among the folds of fabric. Dean grabbed his other duffel as well, the one that was full of weapons and equipment (and normally a change of clothes).  
  
He unlocked the door the room and stepped inside. “Not bad,” he said to himself (and to Sam and Jacob, still out of sight). He flicked on a light, illuminating the twin beds and a nightstand snug between them. “Perfect.”  
  
Dean tossed his bag of weapons in the corner by the door and carefully dropped the other bag on the bed. He flicked the shirt from overtop their heads. “You two are free to leave the bag,” he joked with a smirk.  
  


* * *

  
 _'You two are free to leave the bag?’ Did he really just ...?_  
  
That was the last thing Oscar expected to hear, and so he kept watching curiously from his hiding place under the dresser. He had been scoping out the room for supplies and food, as was his usual. It was some ungodly hour of the night, so he really hadn't expected someone to check in.  
  
He'd barely made it to the floor in time from the top of the dresser when he heard a car pull up. The lock was turning with a metallic scraping that seemed so much louder in his frantic ears. _Human!_ The dangerous word barked in his head. Oscar barely dragged his safety pin grappling hook under the dresser in time for the lights to switch on.  
  
He had been about to breathe a sigh of relief, but his nerves amped up a few more steps when a loud crash filled the room. Oscar had peeked out to see what it was in time for the human to set down a second bag much more carefully than the first. The first duffel had sounded like it might be full of a bunch of spare parts, while the other looked like it held clothes.  
  
Oscar couldn't help but think things were completely backwards. The clothes bag could be tossed down without a care, but the other one was just obnoxiously loud.  
  
And then of course came 'You two are free to leave the bag,' after moving a shirt away. Oscar frowned at the scene. He felt a sinking in his stomach that turned into plain fear when he saw two people, people _his size_ climbing out of the clothes bag and onto the bed. He ducked back under the dresser, making sure he was in the shadows and out of sight.  
  
His heart was pounding a frantic beat. Oscar's entrance to the walls was nowhere near the dresser. He'd aimed to just wait until the human crashed into bed, and he could just avoid the room until he left. He could still do that, but now Oscar had the knowledge that two poor souls were captured by that human.  
  
From the sounds of things, they were _trained_. They'd needed permission to get out of the duffel bag. That they were carried around in a bag like that in the first place put a sick feeling in Oscar’s stomach. What if they'd been jostled around? What if they fell out? Would the human care?  
  
He definitely needed them all to go to sleep so he could get out of here before he joined those poor captives.  
  


* * *

  
Jacob stretched his arms over his head while he surveyed the room. A painting decorated the wall, some cheesy scene of a knight on a horse running across a field. It fit the theme of the place. The shabby dark shades even had the look of some knockoff of something you might see in a castle, with ornate patterns around the edges. The carpet was patterned similarly.  
  
"Pretty cool place. They're really owning the 'knight' theme," he observed, smirking at the painting.  
  
“Maybe we can get Dean to dress up as the dragon,” Sam joked back, smirking up at their brother.  
  
Dean rolled his eyes, nudging Sam in the shoulder with a knuckle. On the cushioned surface of the bed, it was enough to make Sam tumble onto the blankets, knocking Jacob down too when he fell. While they tried to untangle themselves from each other, he gathered up a shirt from the bag. “You two can joke all you want, but this ‘dragon’s’ ready to hit the sack.”  
  
He knelt by the nightstand. He scrunched the shirt in the back corner like normal, gathered up the bible in the room, and grabbed a few of his lore books from his other duffel. Once stacked at the front of the low shelf, they’d give the smaller brothers enough cover so that if anyone got into the room, they wouldn’t be able to tell right off the bat that Sam and Jacob were there. Even a few seconds head start could mean the difference between being caught and escape.  
  
Dean busied himself with other tasks around the room to set up their base camp before he could let himself get to bed. He retrieved the salt and poured it in front of the doorway, and then along the enormous window that lined almost an entire wall. If there was a spirit working around the motel, this would keep it out of their room. He’d have to keep iron close by, just in case there was something he missed, and Jacob’s small iron nail would afford an extra iota of protection for the smaller pair.  
  
With Sam and Jacob out of the clothes bag, Dean grabbed it off of the bed and dropped it down on the ground. He snagged their bag of M&M’s, and sat on the other bed, holding up the bag for a pretend toast. “To another successful night,” he said with a smirk, thinking of all the quarters they’d thrown his way. There was plenty left over in his pocket for the next time he needed to wash clothes.  
  


* * *

  
Oscar's confused frown only deepened. He watched surreptitiously as the human set up a shirt and some books under the nightstand. For a moment he wasn't sure what the hell he was doing, and then realized slowly that the two small people still up on the bed were to sleep there.  
  
It was better than a cage, he supposed, but Oscar still couldn't help but wonder how they'd come to be with this human in the first place. How they came to be so relaxed having him actually _poke_ at them and knock them over. Oscar shuddered at the thought of being caught in one of those hands or pushed around by fingers bigger than his entire body.  
  
Then, a flat expression dropped over his face as the human spread _salt_ all over the room. Oscar's lips thinned to a line and he glanced back to the other two, but they didn't seem to find this behavior weird.   
  
They were already hanging around a human, so they were oddities themselves. Though the human carried them in a bag and had to give them permission to get out, he seemed like he wasn't otherwise mistreating them. He even sat down and gave them a whole bag of M&Ms.  
  
The salt was beyond weird, though.  
  
All in all, Oscar was incredibly confused by the time the human got himself comfortable on one of the beds, and the two smaller people climbed down to their hiding space in the nightstand. The lights were turned off and Oscar blinked in the sudden dark. It was easier to adjust to than sudden light, one comfort after the confusing trio had settled themselves in the cozy motel room.  
  
 _These guys are crazy. Time to go._  
  
Oscar told himself that he'd just have to avoid this room for a few days. He waited an extra minute or two after he heard the human's breathing even out, a rhythm of sleep. Then, he crept out of his hiding place and made his way along the wall to a vent. Once he slipped deftly into it, he was determined not to come back to the weird circus those three were performing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So maybe these brothers don't know how to make the _best_ impression right off the bat...
> 
> **Next:** February 16 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


	4. A Run-In with a Local

In the morning, Jacob rolled over and managed to land himself on a fold of the shirt. It left him at an uncomfortable angle, and he woke up faster than he had intended. Sitting up blearily, he could see some light was trickling into the room. The sunrise snuck up on them all. He stretched his arms over his head and felt his back pop, and he was resigned to being awake for the day.  
  
They had some work to do, if they were going to prevent anyone else from getting crushed. He stood up and shuffled to the cup of water Dean had left them, washing his face and scrubbing some of the sleepiness out of his eyes.  
  
The sound of splashing drew Sam away from his own sleep. He blinked his eyes open blearily, barely able to focus on Jacob a few inches away. “Hey,” he managed to croak. Jacob nodded at him to return the greeting. Sam rubbed a hand on his face to help clear away some of the fog, and ended up in a huge yawn.  
  
It took a few more minutes of staring straight up at the ceiling of the nightstand overhead, but Sam eventually managed to pull himself up off of the shirt and stand. At least he and Jacob had managed to catch some sleep the night before while Dean was driving. From the angle of the rays that slid past the curtain, probably jostled open by Dean laying down the salt the night before, it had to be around ten in the morning, at the earliest.  
  
When he was finally standing, Sam didn’t bother splashing water in his face to wake up. He dunked his entire head, and shook the water from his eyes, making his hair fly out and splash at Jacob. He gave his adopted brother a wry grin, water dripping from his chin. “Whoops.”  
  
Jacob blinked a few times as excess water dripped down his face and past his eyes. He ran a hand down it to brush most of the water off, and flicked the droplets at Sam. Sam’s longer hair had one advantage; it flung water droplets farther for tricks like that. In the end, it helped them both wake up faster.  
  
"Okay, I guess I'll accept that I might have, in some way, earned that," Jacob said with a put-upon sigh. "Jackass." He stuck his hand in the water to fling a little more water back at Sam before backing off quickly to avoid further splashes.  
  
He picked up his satchel and pulled it over his head. Already he felt far more ready for the day than before. After so long carrying it, it just felt strange not to have the bag around. It was well worn but cared for, even with the small scratch on the leather near the clasp.  
  
"Think Dean's awake already?"  
  
Sam paused in the middle of scrubbing the water off his face with a corner of the flannel shirt they’d slept on. He listened to the room beyond, separating the sounds out just like Walt had taught him to. In all those lessons he’d never imagined he’d be using them to tell him if his _brother_ was awake.  
  
The room was silent, and peaceful. There was no running water in the bathroom beyond and only the gentle chirps of birds and the occasional hiss of tires driving by outside broke the quiet. After a moment he could even discern the slow, subtle breathing of the hunter, blending into the outside noises.  
  
“He’s asleep,” Sam assessed. “But he’ll probably wake up in no time. He shoulda shut the drapes better last night. There’s no way he’ll be able to stay asleep in a bright room like this.”  
  
Grabbing his own satchel, Sam hiked his way to the edge of the nightstand. Indeed, Dean’s arm was draped off of the bed beyond, completely lax. One solid stream of daylight snuck into the room, from a crack in the curtains no more than three inches wide. Easy enough for Dean to overlook after an exhausting day of driving. Motes of dust drifted slowly in the light, occasionally disturbed by Dean’s breathing. It would send them into a steady swirl, evening out just in time for another deep sigh.  
  
Sam judged the room. “We should even have time to check things out before he wakes up,” he suggested. “You could probably use some practice after the last few weeks.”  
  
It was important that they didn’t let their skills get rusty. Even with Dean around, there were other humans everywhere. They’d need every bit of their ‘ninja skills,’ as Dean called them, if they were ever discovered.  
  
Jacob grinned sheepishly. He couldn’t argue Sam’s point at all. Excepting the times that he and Sam had helped Dean seek out evidence on a case, he hadn't had much practice scoping out a room. Not since they'd left their life in the _Trails West Motel_ behind. Sam had already been well learned in the ways of the smaller folk, but Jacob was only a beginner. Hell, his first outing without their adopted father along for extra guidance had resulted in his capture.  
  
Thankfully, that capture had led to Sam being reunited with his big brother. By the craziest luck, Dean had checked into the very same room in which Jacob and Sam were hidden away, hunting for supplies. Had it been any other human, Jacob might not be living so freely now, if he was living at all. He needed to stay in practice to avoid being caught by someone else who might not treat him as well as Dean had even when he didn’t know what was going on.  
  
"You're probably right," Jacob muttered in answer, joining Sam near the edge of the shelf. They could make a round before Dean had to begin his own investigating for the day. The two smaller brothers were likely to end up in the inner pocket of a suit while Dean went to interview the witnesses. That pocket was tighter than Dean's other pockets, but they couldn’t chill on his shoulder while he talked to people.  
  
"Maybe later we can check out the walls, too," Jacob suggested. They had yet to find any other people their size. Even with all the weirdness happening around this motel, it was possible that some of the smaller folk might be hidden away here.  


* * *

  
_Oh crap,_ Oscar thought, practically holding his breath. If he heard correctly, they were going to come searching for people in the walls ... did that human have them bringing people out that he could also capture? Oscar sidled along the nightstand and slipped behind it, hoping they'd go do their exploring of the room while he found his way to an exit and got the hell out of dodge.  
  
He shouldn't have come back to the room. Oscar's curiosity had drawn him back like a moth to flame. He'd already wrapped up a handful of salt from one of the piles left by the human in a scrap of cloth. Salt was good for all kinds of things, and they'd just left it lying around like weirdos.  
  
He'd checked out Dean's duffel bags too. One was full of clothes, all freshly washed based on the smell. The other had made him fall back to the carpet from where he'd climbed up. It was full of _weapons._ All kinds of weapons. It was like glimpsing one of the few action shows he’d heard playing on the motel’s TVs growing up. Humans had a fascination for huge weapons, though Oscar never imagined he’d actually _see_ one.  
  
He'd been on his way to the nightstand to climb up when Sam had stepped out. Oscar had managed to hide before being noticed, and he cursed his own stupidity. The M &Ms up on the nightstand weren't worth the risk of putting himself this close to those two _or_ the human. He took a slow breath, glad he was behind the nightstand and harder to find. He leaned, very slowly, to peek around the side once to see where those strange other guys were.  


* * *

  
Sam nodded to Jacob’s suggestion. He was curious himself to find people their own size. It would be reassuring to find people like them out in the world. After weeks of being exposed to at least one human constantly (though being around Dean was nowhere near as nervewracking as it would be to be around any _other_ humans), finding people like them would be a breath of fresh air. Dean never talked loud on purpose, but no matter what, he'd loom overhead. Even sitting on his shoulder, they'd be overshadowed by the older hunter.  
  
Sam chose a direction and gestured for Jacob to take the other way. "We'll scope things out and meet in the middle," he said, taking charge naturally. Years of being either alone or with Jacob had adjusted him to making the decisions, instead of following along. It was hard to slip back into that with Dean sometimes. At least with Jacob, he didn't have to worry about it.  


* * *

  
Oscar was practically holding his breath as he watched. He saw one of the two step into view, his leather satchel lightly swinging against his side. He walked with the familiar gait of scoping out the room, a very slight crouch and alert eyes flicking in every direction to take in rapid details. That was something Oscar knew well. They were going to snoop around while their human ... _keeper?_ was asleep.  
  
The guy wouldn't find much but salt. Oscar sure wasn't going to stick around to be found. Before the other one could step into view and double his chances of being seen, Oscar ducked back behind the nightstand. He wended his way around the back, hoping to duck under the bed the human rested on. It would be harder for the human to spot him there than under the other bed.  
  
He shuddered at the sight of the hand hanging over the side. It was so _huge._ Every finger except maybe the pinkie was bigger than Oscar's scrawny, three-and-a-quarter inch body. He'd be easily overpowered by a hand like that. He had to get past it.  
  
He darted towards the front of the nightstand, stooped a little in a sneaking walk. Cloth wraps for shoes muffled his footsteps as if he were a mouse scampering along the ground. His eyes were glued to that hand the whole time as he passed it.  
  
His focus was so sharp that he didn't notice the other person rounding the corner until he crashed right into him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!
> 
>  **Next:** February 19 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


	5. HELP

"Woah!" Jacob hissed, surprised when something ... some _one_ walked right into him. The little guy staggered in surprise, turning his head away from Dean's hand so quickly that he lost his balance.  
  
Jacob shot out a hand on reflex, grabbing the guy's upper arm before he fell over. The little guy was scrawny; Jacob's whole hand wrapped all the way around his arm. He tugged the surprised person back to his feet and noticed he was also _really_ short. He couldn't be three and a half inches, and even that was a generous guess.  
  
The stranger yanked his arm away and backed into the front of the nightstand. He stared up at Jacob in shock, both of his hands thrown over his mouth to stifle a yelp. Light brown eyes, wide with complete alarm, flickered to the side more than once.  
  
Realizing that the poor guy was probably worried about Dean, Jacob decided not to call out to either of his brothers. Sam had probably heard his exclamation anyway. "Hey, hey, chill, okay? You're alright," he said softly, holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.  
  
"Jacob?" Sam called out worriedly, reacting to the startled exclamation exactly the way the others were hoping he wouldn't. He rounded the side of the nightstand, determined to see if Jacob was alright. If Jacob was under attack, Sam was ready, his hand on his knife. The second he was around the corner, he froze in place.  
  
There was a standoff, between Jacob and...  
  
A guy the same size as they were.  
  
Despite the tension between the others, Sam burst out into a grin. "You're our size!" he blurted in surprise. He was thrilled to know that there were others like them out in the world, and they weren't just in a little dead-end motel in Haven, Kansas.  
  
Oscar wasn't aware that his eyes could get even wider, but the other person approached and they definitely did. He glanced back and forth between the pair. This second guy, with longer hair, was a whole _four inches tall._ The one with the hooded jacket wasn't far behind, either. These guys were enormous.  
  
 _Your size? What ruler are you using?_ he wanted to say. Oscar's hands clamped firmly over his mouth to prevent any noises of alarm from escaping him. A whimper of fear caught in his skinny chest, wanting to come out but determined to stay in at the same time. He’d grown up knowing how to stay quiet, how to keep out of sight. This was exactly the last thing he wanted to happen.  
  
He pressed his back into the nightstand, breathing quickly. Oscar had to tilt his head back to look either of them in the eye. That and the fact that they were mysteriously allied with a human left him more than nervous. He shuddered once again, unable to avoid thinking of what would be in store for him if that human figured out he was there. With each passing second, it seemed more and more likely.  
  
The slightly smaller one, the one that Oscar had run into, frowned in what might have been concern. "Hey, woah, dude," he said in a quiet, gentle tone. "You're okay. No one's gonna hurt ya. You can relax."  
  
Oscar blinked at him. He couldn't let himself believe something like that with a human nearby. Humans were big and grabby and they took whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it. It was something he’d always known. That was why he put in the effort to be so _good_ at staying hidden.  
  
Oscar wasn't safe here. He shook his head emphatically, glancing to the side where the human's hand still hung over the side of the bed.  
  
Sam followed the little guy’s line of sight, and focused on the hand hanging off the bed. In sleep, it was limp and motionless, but all of them knew that if Dean woke up it could move lightning quick. The scrawny stranger didn’t have any way of knowing that Dean wasn’t about to hurt any of them.  
  
Holding out his arms, Sam took a step towards the guy. His natural empathy came out in the kind expression on his face, a hopeful demeanor shining through. “Hey, it’s okay. You can calm down a little, I promise.” He put a hand on his chest. “My name’s Sam. This is Jacob. We just want to talk.” He gestured towards the hand hanging off the bed. “That’s Dean, our older brother. He’s not going to hurt anyone either.”  
  
Jacob watched the little guy's expression change. It went from fear, to fear and confusion, to total confusion, and then right back to fear as Sam spoke. He couldn't blame the small stranger for his disbelief. It wasn't the most believable story to Jacob sometimes, and it was his own story.  
  
Those small hands were finally lowered from the little guy's mouth so he should shake his head again, messy brown hair agitated by the motion. "Th-that's not possible," he managed to squeak out. His voice was completely wound up with nerves, and delivered softly, as if the little guy was part mouse. Even Jacob almost didn't hear it.  
  
The scared stranger flinched back from Sam, but didn't have much room to maneuver with his back against the nightstand. Jacob remembered well how Sam had patiently explained everything to him when he first woke up from the curse that left them a mere fraction of their natural size. It was tough to ignore Sam’s so-called puppy eyes.  
  
It looked like the little guy really wanted to believe them, too, but he broke eye contact with those expressive hazels to glance over at the hand once more, and shivered so much that even Jacob saw it. Before either brother could react, the little guy lurched forward.  
  
"No way!" he blurted, his hands outstretched. He shoved Sam with everything he had in his drive to get past the much taller man. The element of surprise helped him. Jacob made to reach out and stop the guy, but he slipped past him just by ducking under his swing.  
  
"Ah- Sam!" Jacob blurted without thinking, turning to look back and see that his brother was fine after being pushed so suddenly.  
  


* * *

  
Voices tickled at the edge of hearing.  
  
Sleep faded for Dean as he heard the sounds of his two little brothers down on the floor. His nose twitched, and eyes scrunched as he noticed the sunlight in the room. Other than that, he remained motionless, trying to hold onto the relaxing darkness and slip back into a deep sleep to recover from the exhausting drive the day before. He’d been in a hurry to get to the motel once he’d found the case, otherwise they would normally have found themselves a room not far from the laundromat.  
  
The voices continued, and sleep fled the rest of the way. Dean cracked open a bleary eye, staring blankly at the M&Ms sitting on the nightstand while he tried focus himself the rest of the way awake.  
  
Then he heard Jacob’s exclamation, and instincts kicked in.  
  
Dean was up in a flash, peering off the bed to check on the others down on the floor. He saw Sam stumbling backwards in surprise, and Jacob standing not far from him. A third figure was down there, and before he was awake enough to focus on what exactly it was, his hand shot out. Long fingers halted a frantic run and swept the third figure off the ground, enclosing him in a concealing fist.  
  
“What the hell?” were the first words that Dean managed to piece together. He rubbed his hair and face with his other hand, sitting up on the bed and staring strangely at his fist. _Was that another guy like them?_ His mind hadn’t caught up to the fast actions.  
  


* * *

  
The only reason Oscar didn't wail out a plea for his life was the hyperventilating. He couldn't get enough relief from one breath before his frantic lungs forced it back out again and sucked in more air.  
  
 _No no no I'm in a hand no HELP_ played in his head, frantic and disjointed thoughts that only amplified his terror further in a feedback loop.  
  
Caught. By a _human._  
  
He had thought for sure he would get away. He'd knocked Sam away, relying on the element of surprise. Jacob hadn't been able to grab him. Oscar had had the open plain of the floor ahead of him, and he was sure he'd make it far enough away before any of them could do anything about it.  
  
And yet here he was. Trapped completely in a hand. Fingers bigger than his whole body curled around him and kept him neatly secured against an enormous, callused palm. Hardly any light peeked through, but it was enough that Oscar could clearly see the shapes of those fingers that held him so snugly. He wasn’t going anywhere unless they allowed it.  
  
He writhed as much as his tight quarters would allow. His arms were pinned to his sides and Oscar could barely move them. His legs, try as he might to kick, were hopelessly stuck. Oscar was captured by the human with all the ease one might expect.  
  
Whatever happened to him next would be entirely up to the human. Oscar had no control whatsoever over the enormous person. He was completely at the human's mercy. After he'd attacked the so-called "brothers," Oscar couldn't help but worry. Would he be punished for attacking them, or would he be kept around until he was friendly to the human like Sam and Jacob?  
  
Would it be both? Or would he be killed?  
  
The uncertainty finally drew a desperate cry from his lips. "P- _please_ , let me go! Please, I'm sorry!" Tears stung the corners of his eyes and slipped free to track down his cheeks. Terror buzzed in every immobilized limb.  
  
On the floor below, Jacob winced. He heard the faintest sound of the little guy yelling in Dean's hand, though his voice was too muffled to make out the words. If he hadn't seen it happen, he wouldn't know there was an entire person concealed in Dean's fist. Concealed, and completely terrified by the sound of it.  
  
"Dean! Be careful!" Jacob warned, his eyes fixed on the closed hand. "I think it's just a misunderstanding here, _don't_ hurt him!"  
  
Dean blinked blankly down at Jacob, his mind slowly starting to piece together what was going on. That, coupled with the tiny struggles he could feel in his hand made him realize what he’d done without even thinking. The guy in his hand was so small that he could barely even struggle against the powerful grip. Even Jacob had had more of an effect when Dean had caught him, and they all knew exactly how much good that had done him.  
  
Sam looked just as concerned, no obvious injuries at all on him as he stared up worriedly at his big brother. “Dean, please… he’s scared! Let him out!”  
  
Dean’s eyes widened at the worry between Sam and Jacob as it all sunk in. “ _Crap,_ ” he hissed. He brought his other hand over, cupping against the first as he slowly, carefully, opened the fingers.  
  
Oscar drew in a deep, desperate breath of air as if he’d just broken the surface of the water after a swim when he saw the light again. His heart still alternated between fluttering and pounding, caught in a loop of fear that he would have been stuck in that hand until his last breath. He tumbled into a heap in the cupped hands, his body shuddering with fear. His ratty cloth bag, smushed after being trapped in the hand with him, landed heavily next to him.  
  
There was thick skin beneath him, and a pulse thundering away beneath that. Swaying in the platform he found himself on betrayed what it was, and the knowledge roiled in his stomach.  
  
His eyes trailed to the wrists of the enormous hands that completely dwarfed him. Past them to the thick arms laced with muscles bigger than Oscar. Past the huge chest that moved slowly with each gale of breath the human drew in and released. Past the mouth, slightly open in surprise, and up to the eyes. Intense green eyes stared down at him, and Oscar didn't have room in his mind to assess the expression in them.  
  
He was afraid. Too afraid to think, too afraid to try to escape. Oscar was just afraid.  
  
He all but collapsed on the hands, his arms over his head protectively. His legs drew close and he curled up into as small of a ball as he could. Considering the size he started, it was very small indeed. "D-don't ... don't ..." he rasped out, unable to summon up any other words.   
  
The human could do _anything._ Oscar was powerless as the huge person stared at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys. You're all in the right place, now lets take down the intense about ten notches... Oscar could use some chill... and being let go. Yep.
> 
> **Next:** February 21 st, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Don't forget to feed the writers some comments and kudos! <3


	6. They're a Handful

Jacob winced. He couldn't stand to watch this from down on the floor anymore. He couldn't even see the other guy, but he had a feeling he understood what was going through his head. Concealed in a fist, _stuck_ that way until Dean decided to let him go. Jacob knew that feeling.  
  
His hook and climbing rope were out in a flash, and without hesitation Jacob threw the hook upwards to the edge of the nightstand, tugging on the twine right when the hook caught. He climbed up faster than he ever did, throwing his customary caution to the wind. He had to see how the little guy was faring.  
  
Sam reacted slower than Jacob, his eyes still wide as he met Dean’s shocked expression. The hunter didn’t seem to know what to do after he’d woken up to a guy smaller than Sam or Jacob both in his hands. The green eyes flashed helplessly to Sam before going back to the tiny guy.  
  
Sam tossed his hook up after Jacob, wasting no time on the scramble up. For once, Jacob had a head start and was _keeping_ the head start in his determined hurry.  
  
Dean held his hands closer to his face. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said gently, hoping he could get the tiny guy to relax. Even Jacob hadn’t reacted like this until Dean had slammed a vase down around him. It was making him feel monstrous, having someone so obviously, _pitifully_ terrified of him in his own hands.  
  
He lightly brushed a finger against the tiny, balled-up person, and the little guy’s body rocked back and forth from the touch. “C’mon, I’m not gonna hurtcha. I just thought you attacked my brothers, that’s all.” With no response, Dean looked up helplessly to see where Sam and Jacob were. Spotting Jacob already up on the nightstand, he held his hands close to the edge. “I can’t tell if I hurt him,” Dean said, upset by the thought.  
  
As soon as Dean's hands were close enough, Jacob hopped across the gap. He knew Dean wouldn't let him fall. He knew these hands were safe, and that they'd never seek to harm him _or_ any innocent smaller person.  
  
Clearly, the little guy curled up and looking smaller than ever while eclipsed by huge fingers didn't know that at all. Someone had to help him see.  
  
"Hey, hey," Jacob said, kneeling next to the little guy and placing a gentle hand on his shoulders. The scared stranger shifted so that one of his frightened eyes was peeking at Jacob. Jacob met that gaze with his own steady stare. There were frightened tears in those eyes. Dean could be scary for someone who didn't know his intentions were good.  
  
"Are you injured?" Jacob asked quietly. When he got a minute shake of the head in reply, he glanced over his shoulder to give Dean a quick thumbs up. Calming the little guy down would be ten times harder if he’d gotten hurt in all the quick reactions. Dean relaxed a hair.  
  
"Okay. You're okay, I promise," Jacob continued. He slipped a hand under the guy's other shoulder and helped him sit up. The little guy let him, but when he looked up and caught a glimpse of Dean again he started to quake.  
  
Jacob, acting on impulse, pulled him into a hug so he couldn't see Dean's huge face looking down on him. Not until he calmed down. The tactic seemed to help, because the smaller person didn't try to squirm out of the protective hug. His eyes were wide but he stayed there, with his cheek against Jacob’s chest from the sudden embrace.  
  
"H-he's ... he's so ... he's a human ... he's a _human,_ " the smaller man breathed, talking through his shock.  
  
"Sure is," Jacob answered. "And he's not gonna hurt anybody, we all just got a little high strung this morning, that's all. Everything's fine, honest."  
  
Sam reached the top of the nightstand, darting over to the edge of the hand as well. He didn’t jump on, worried about crowding the smaller guy all over again. At least Dean was no longer worried the little guy was hurt. The last thing they needed was the hunter even more on edge. Dean wasn’t going to hurt any of them, but this guy didn’t know that, and an edgy Dean was even harder to take in than normal.  
  
Sam put a hand on the fingertip closest to where he was standing, watching Jacob try and calm down the stranger they’d found in their room. Though, he supposed that _they_ were the strangers here; clearly the guy lived in the motel. He’d probably been trying to scope out the room for anything dropped when they woke up. They’d ruined that attempt, completely, _and_ woken up the human in the room. If it was anyone but Dean, Sam and Jacob would be just as frightened of the consequences of being found out. It was drilled into their heads from the moment they woke up cursed.  
  
Squatting down on the nightstand, Sam put himself down at the same height as Jacob and the stranger. “It’s okay,” he said, supporting Jacob’s words. “No one’s gonna get hurt. We were just surprised to see you.”  
  
Oscar didn't try to squirm out of the careful embrace around him. His heart fluttered and his stomach roiled with unease. He could still feel the human's pulse underneath them, keeping the massive being alive and alert. Focused right on the pair in his hands.  
  
Oscar shuddered and worked his hands up to his face. He scrubbed at his eyes, a task made tricky the way his arms were shaking. When he looked up again, he leaned a little to peek timidly around Jacob. Awe and trepidation in his eyes met growing concern. He broke eye contact quickly, unable to hold a lengthy stare with such an intense, _giant_ face.  
  
"I-I didn't mean to," he mumbled out. "I was just looking around." He sat back and Jacob let him, though one of his hands hovered near Oscar's shoulder for a beat longer before lowering away. Oscar brushed away any lingering tears waiting on his eyes with the heel of his hand. So long as he avoided looking up at Dean's face, he could try to pick up the pieces of his shattered nerves.  
  
"No harm done, man," Jacob assured him with an encouraging smile. "Dean's beauty sleep only goes so far anyway." His grin widened when the little guy looked up at him with wide eyes, looking almost surprised that Jacob would tease a human so boldly. Dean could be trusted, and Jacob wanted to make sure this stranger knew it.  
  
Dean made a face at Jacob's back by instinct before he could stop himself. Then, realizing they might not want to stay in his hands, he slowly moved them until the side of his hand was flat against the side of the nightstand. He could remember how afraid Jacob had been the first time Dean snatched him off the ground. Back then, Dean hadn't known if he was dealing with a monster in disguise, so the fear and struggles had meant nothing to him.  
  
Now, he knew that none of them were dangerous. In fact, _he_ was the only danger in the room, unless the new little guy pulled a knife the way Sam had when facing Dean down. From the look of things, that wasn't likely.  
  
Dean flattened both hands out so the fingers were level with the nightstand as well. It would give Jacob and the little guy plenty of room to step off, and hopefully assuage some of the trepidation that was flashed up at him from the smallest face he'd ever seen. The new guy was actually making Sam and Jacob look _big_ by comparison, and Dean hadn't thought that was possible. The newcomer was _scrawny_ next to the pair.  
  
Sam put a foot on Dean's hand, offering a hand to the other two. "Let's get you on solid ground," he said kindly, offering a smile of his own.  
  
Oscar stared at the offered hand for a second, confusion growing in his eyes. He hardly knew what to think. He'd gone from being trapped completely in a fist to being moved so gently to the nightstand that he’d hardly noticed the movement. He was amazed that a human could have moved so smoothly, rather than send him and Jacob lurching onto the furniture or down to the floor.  
  
He accepted the offered help, letting Sam take his small hand and help him to his feet. Oscar stared down at the surface under his shoes. A hand. The skin had barely any give to it under his slight weight. He wondered if the human even felt him there.  
  
It was a thing to ponder from a safer perch. He stumbled onto the nightstand and immediately whirled back around to keep the human in his sights. Jacob hopped back to the nightstand as well. Oscar felt even smaller next to Sam and Jacob with the backdrop of such a huge human behind them. Sam had nearly a full inch on him, and they were both quite a bit thicker and more muscular than he was.  
  
"Wh- ... what ...?" Oscar stammered breathlessly, taking a few shuffled steps back from them. His hands gripped the strap of his cloth bag with white knuckles, and he shook.  
  
Jacob smiled faintly at him. "Hey, _breathe,_ okay? What's your name?"  
  
Oscar took the advice the best he could, though his scrawny chest still rose and fell a bit faster than ideal. He at least got oxygen to his lungs. He glanced between Sam and Jacob before answering. "It's- my name is Oscar."  
  
Sam smiled warmly back at him, glad to see the little guy opening up. "It's real good to meet you, Oscar."  
  
"Hey Oz," Dean rumbled from above. He ignored the bitchface that Sam leveled up in his direction. "Sorry about the whole... grabbing you thing."  
  
Sam rolled his eyes at Dean's interruption, then went on as though it never happened. "That's just our brother, Dean. He's not gonna hurt you or anyone else. He was just trying to help. We try not to go too hard on him for being too big to fit into the walls with us."  
  
Oscar's expression shifted to confusion again. They were spouting the same weird nonsense as before, and it didn't make any more sense with the fog of terror still clinging to his thoughts. "Y-you think I'm stupid or something?" he asked before he could stop himself. He felt his face heat up from his bold question.  
  
Jacob grinned. At least the little guy was putting together full sentences. "I know it's pretty different, but stranger things have happened, Oscar," he answered, shrugging.  
  
Oscar shook his head slightly and looked past the two of them up at Dean. Jacob and Sam may be bulky guys, but Dean was definitely too big to be their brother, and Oscar had no clue why they thought he'd believe their claim. They had to mean that Dean had adopted them or something.  
  
"How did you end up calling a human your brother?!" Oscar asked skeptically, though his timid demeanor remained. He shuffled his feet to release a small bit of energy before he got wound up enough to bolt again. His subconscious directed him to take up as little space as possible.  
  
Dean watched the three on the nightstand, shifting position so that his hands were draped over his knees. He was intent on the small gathering, and ready to help out if the small Oz tried to bolt and tumbled off the nightstand.  
  
Sam took over the explanation, hoping to unravel a bit of the confusion.  
  
“I call him my brother because that’s what he _is_ ,” Sam started calmly. “My name is Sam Winchester. That’s Dean Winchester. We got separated as kids, and I got hit with a curse that shrank me to this size. Jacob got hit by the same curse, and the family that adopted me took him in as well. He’s been my brother ever since. When Dean found us at a motel like this one, he offered us the chance to come with him, as _family_. Which is why we’re with him. He helps us out, we help him out.”  
  
Oscar absently twisted the strap of his bag in his hands. His heart still hammered fearfully in his chest, and he wanted to run off. A few things kept him there. He knew Dean could catch him again if he wanted to, and he was just curious enough to pause and think over Sam's explanation.  
  
_One of them is adopted and it isn't the one twenty times the size of the others,_ he thought ruefully. He wondered if they'd already noticed the irony in that scenario. A scenario which Oscar wasn't yet fully sure he believed.  
  
One thing in particular stood out to him. "You said you got shrank down ... you used to be big? You're humans?" His eyes were wide with both disbelief and concern as Sam nodded in reply. He had spent his entire life very small, even compared to other small folk, but to know what it was like to be a giant and then _lose_ it had to be rough. Oscar was stressed enough without something like that looming in his memories.  
  
Jacob smirked and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "It's the truth. I didn't much believe it either when it first happened." He'd thought that Sam was crazy, in fact. Enough that at first, Jacob ran away from who would then adopt him and make sure he knew how to survive at the size the curse had left him with.  
  
Oscar looked down, absently picking at the cloth strap of his bag. He was left imagining what Sam and Jacob might look like if they really were human sized. If Oscar had to face _three_ enormous humans like this, he might just faint. His tiny heart couldn’t take it.  
  
If they had lived with other small people before hanging around a human, there was no doubt they knew what Oscar was in the room for. His shoulders tensed up and he glanced back up at the three of them. "Just so I'm sure," he began, his voice higher in pitch than he'd have wanted. "You're not mad that I was ... sneaking around in here?"  
  
“Nah,” Dean said dismissively. He reached out and ruffled Sam and Jacob’s hair with a finger each, eliciting grumbles and Sam attempting to fix his staticky hair. “The first time I found these guys, they were trying to find food like that. I know how hard it can be for ya. Just watch yourself. I don’t want anyone down on the ground that I don’t know about. It’s too dangerous.” Oscar stood frozen, watching that huge hand with wide brown eyes.  
  
Sam finally managed to free himself from the finger completely. “Dude!” He shot up his most scathing glare at Dean, for all the effect it had. Dean held up his hands in surrender, taking on an innocent look.  
  
With a sigh, Sam turned back to Oscar. “He’s right. Just be careful if we don’t know where you are, okay?” Dean was too big for any of them to risk him stepping on them, or knocking them over with a boot while he was walking. That alone could easily disable or kill any of the three, and Oscar was absolutely _tiny._ The only person Sam had met that was smaller than him and not a child was Mallory, the woman who had become Sam and Jacob’s adoptive mother, and she only stood at a petite three inches.  
  
The M &M bag sitting behind Oscar caught Sam’s attention. “If you need any food, we’re more than happy to share,” he offered. “In fact, feel free to take an M&M. Me and Jacob have more than enough to spare.”  
  
Oscar twisted his body around to look at the bag of M&Ms, tearing his gaze away from the sight of Dean ruffling Sam and Jacob's hair. Just like a big brother might do. The colorful images printed on the bag reminded Oscar of why he was near the nightstand in the first place. Those damn M&Ms had drawn him so close, and he had colossal luck that he wasn't still trapped or worse because of it.  
  
Oscar looked back in time to see Jacob brushing his hands through his hair in an attempt to fix it. He gave up on it when he saw Oscar looking back hopefully. "Go on, man. We won't let Dean at them but you can take as many as will fit in your bag."  
  
Oscar's mouth dropped open. He wondered if Jacob realized how absurd he sounded. If his grin was any indication, he very much did. These two so far had scolded, griped at, and teased a human. A _human._ And Dean was sitting there, letting them. Oscar’s worries about being kept against his will dropped away, piece by tiny piece.  
  
He took a few steps backwards, before finally allowing himself to turn towards the candy, just enough to kneel by the bag. He reached into the opening torn in the plastic from the night before. Out of habit, he was careful not to rustle the material, keeping very quiet as he drew a red M &M out of the bag. He set to tucking it away in his bag and said "Um. Thanks ... for the food and for not ... y'know, trapping me or something."  
  
“Yeah…” Dean rubbed the back of his neck at the reminder. “Sorry about that, Oz. I heard someone yell, and saw Sam stumbling… I wouldn’t have grabbed like that if I’d been awake. What the hell happened while I was asleep?”  
  
Sam gave a half-shrug, glancing over his shoulder with a sheepish expression. “We ran into him, and well… our story isn’t the most believable.” He looked back at Oscar. “I’m sorry if we startled you at all… it’s just, we haven’t seen anyone else our size since we left our adopted family to go with Dean! We weren’t sure if there was anyone else out there, and seeing _you_ means there’s other people around!” He gave the smaller guy a huge smile again, just like when he’d first seen Oscar.  
  
Oscar straightened again, feeling sheepish from Sam's enthusiasm, all to see him. He'd never been the center of attention before, and in fact the very idea nagged at his worries sometimes. He didn't know if he liked it. With his M &M packed away, he shifted his bag to give his otherwise idle hands something to do.  
  
"Y-yeah, I guess you're right," he conceded. "Surprise." He might have hesitated to confirm existence of the others, but clearly the time for secrecy had long since run away from him. Oscar had been caught and these three clearly knew about other people his size, even if they were technically all human. It didn't even seem like Dean was about to grab at him again, despite the nightstand being in reach.  
  
It was strange. That's what he'd always thought humans just _did._ Grab, take, keep. It wasn't like the three on the nightstand could stop Dean if he wanted to pocket them.  
  
Instead, Dean had apologized a few times now. And ... "Um. My name isn't _Oz,_ " he began, wondering if maybe Dean misheard him. "It's Oscar."  
  
Jacob chuckled. "Oh, he knows," he explained, rolling his eyes as if to say 'what can you do?' He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Dean. "He's just being Dean. You get used to it.”  
  
Dean's shit-eating grin grew at the words shot back at him. "Half-pint knows exactly how it feels, dontcha?" he joked gamely at Jacob's expense. His eyes flashed over to Oscar instead. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to remember your name, Oz," he said with a wink. It earned a faint frown of annoyance from the little guy. "My brothers always make sure to keep me in line, even when they're chilling in a pocket while we're outside."  
  
Sam sighed, knowing how easily it could be misinterpreted. Even _Jacob_ had thought he'd be taken away in a pocket like that. "Only to keep out of sight," Sam told Oscar, before his widened eyes were accompanied by more telltale signs of nerves. "The pockets are safer than letting any other humans know we're around, by far. Dean's enough to handle on his own, and he knows better than to grab unless it's an emergency, like if he thinks one of us is being attacked."  
  
Oscar nodded slowly, forcing himself to take a slow, deep breath. He might not even be tall enough to try to stand in one of Dean's pockets, let alone escape it. That was if it wasn't buttoned up.  
  
Sam's words caught up to Oscar and he felt his cheeks grow warmer as they blushed pink. He had definitely come as close to attacking Sam as he was capable of doing. In his panic, Oscar had shoved at the taller man with all his might, a desperate move. It had worked for him, but it had also put the human on high alert. Oscar wrung his hands. "I'm sorry," he said, his expression earnest. "Pushing you was just kinda the first thing I could think to do."  
  
“Don’t worry about it, really,” Sam said reassuringly. “There was no harm done.” It was doubtful the little guy could have done much damage to Sam or Jacob even if he’d gone in swinging, he was so small. He barely reached Sam’s chest, not to mention being scrawny. His arms would barely manage the strength to wind them if he landed a punch to the gut.  
  
_Probably has the same trouble as we did with getting food,_ Sam thought to himself. Food was what had put the cursed brothers in Dean’s room when he checked into the motel. They’d lucked out because Dean was Dean, and Oscar had lucked out too, but it wouldn’t always be like that.  
  
With that in mind, Sam continued on. “You’re welcome in the room if you feel like swinging by. We’ll probably be around at least a few days, and I wouldn’t mind having someone else to talk to.” He’d have a chance to learn about how others their size lived, and it if the way he and Jacob had been raised. It would be fascinating, especially with just a few miles of distance they could have separate societies because of how hard that distance was to cross at only a few inches tall.  
  
Jacob nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you'd be welcome. You're safe with Dean around." Dean always tried so hard to be careful with Jacob and Sam. He may tease a lot, but he'd even held off on that until he was sure they were okay with it.  
  
Oscar blinked, still stunned by the fact that he wasn't trapped or squished or any number of things humans did to small creatures they found. Jacob could understand, and he hadn't even grown up small like Sam or Oscar. There was an entirely different mindset rattling around in the short little guy's head, one that didn't have any contingencies for the situation he was in.  
  
"I mean, no pressure or anything," Jacob amended, trying to give the poor guy a break. "It's up to you. But if you decide you want more M &Ms, you know where to come looking." He smiled encouragingly, and it combined with Sam's friendly invitation to shake Oscar out of his shocked reverie.  
  
"Oh, well, uh," he stammered, a sheepish smile just barely ghosting across his face. "I suppose if you're offering, maybe." He scratched idly at his neck. "But, well, for now, I think maybe I'll go home." He took a few sideways steps towards the edge of the nightstand and paused, making sure none of them would try to stop him.  
  
“We’ll see you around, Oscar,” Sam said with a smile. None of them moved until the little guy had started his climb down the back of the nightstand, on his way back to the walls he knew so well and safety.  
  
Sam turned to the other two with him. “So, I guess we should get ready to go?” he asked, remembering they were there on a case with lives at stake. The excitement of the morning was past, and now it was time to bunker down and get to work.  
  
“Hold your horses, pint-size,” Dean grumbled as he finally stood up for the first time. He stretched his arms up high overhead, working out the kinks from sleep. “ _Some_ of us need to get a shower since _some_ of us have to talk to people during interviews.”  
  
Sam shook his head with a smile, watching Dean walk away from the nightstand, long strides covering the distance in the room in seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Jacob, the dears, are so excited to find another person their height. Don't overwhelm him all at once!
> 
>  **Next:** February 23 rd, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!
> 
> Vote for when you'd like the chapters to post during the week [here](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GYRJRMN)! New posting schedule will take effect after Garlic and Cold Spots wraps up!


	7. The Erstwhile Visitor

Hours later, Dean was hunched over the laptop, staring blankly into the screen. “No deaths until the recent rash of crushings,” he muttered to himself. “Nothing hinky. No hexbags, no sulfur. What the hell is going on in this motel?” He absently grabbed a breadstick, dipping it into the warm marinara sauce.  
  
“Save some for the rest of us,” Sam shot up from the side, his own torn off piece of bread in hand. Once Dean’s huge breadstick had cleared the small cup, he took advantage and dipped it in the warm sauce.  
  
“And no double dipping!” Dean shot right back, not missing a beat.  
  
Jacob rolled his eyes and continued looking over the newspaper articles Dean had scrounged together about the recent deaths in town. As much as he'd like to quip about how the two were bickering like girls at a slumber party, he refrained, but only barely. Instead he glanced over at the cup of marinara, which was like a huge basin to him and Sam, and took a bite of his own bread without it.  
  
He had a pen nearby in case he wanted to mark something, but so far every source he had didn't have much to offer. The only things that connected the victims were their proximity to the motel. There was something screwy but nothing helped to connect the dots any closer. At least they had salt lines set up to keep a lot of things out while they got to the bottom of things.  
  
The whole scene was bizarre to watch from down on the floor, where Oscar hid in the shadows of the dresser. Sam and Dean bickering over the food, while Jacob sat nearby continuing his work would have made a lot more sense if Sam and Jacob didn't fit in Dean's pockets. Oscar had been watching for a few minutes, thrown off guard by how normal they seemed to think they were being.  
  
He wasn't sure why he'd come back. The offer of food notwithstanding, Oscar's run in with the three that morning had been terrifying. Once he'd escaped back into the walls, he'd all but bolted all the way home. Forgoing all his errands of the day, Oscar had crawled weakly under the pile of blankets that constituted his bed and slept off the surge of adrenaline.  
  
After a reaction like that, he really wouldn't have thought he'd be back in the same room as these oddballs.   
  
And yet.  
  
 _What am I even doing?!_ he asked himself, even as he inched forward a little more.   
  
Dean scanned over the news articles with Jacob, easily reading the words around the small figure of his adopted brother as he took a bite of his garlic bread. Even with Jacob standing right over them, he didn’t have a problem. If he did, he could always nudge him jokingly out of the way. It was great to see both Sam and Jacob loosening up enough to shove back at him with determined looks on their faces instead of shoot him fearful glances when he joked around.  
  
Speaking of...  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Dean caught sight of someone who wasn’t as comfortable around them. Oscar still had the timid look on his face, but now there was curiosity replacing the fear he remembered.  
  
“Hey, Oz!” Dean said with a grin, glad for an excuse to take a break from the research.  
  
Oscar ducked back in surprise from the boisterous greeting, but poked his head out again after a few seconds. The others had noticed him, which he supposed shouldn't be that surprising. Dean was used to looking out for smaller people. He had to look out for his brothers. Oscar still couldn't believe they were all a family, but for lack of a better explanation he didn't question it.  
  
"It's _Oscar,_ " he corrected instead, calling as loudly as he could. His voice, used very little or not at all, didn't produce a lot of volume. Even so, his cheeks reddened for his boldness. He crept out of the shadows completely, a death grip on the strap of his bag as his instincts pleaded with him to return to cover. To safety.  
  
Sam and Jacob were up there on the table in plain sight. _They_ were safe, so Oscar could be, too. He shuffled his feet indecisively, almost darting back under the dresser. Then, after a short huff of a sigh, he took a step towards the table, and another.  
  
He stopped when, from the top of the table so high above, Jacob leaned over the edge. He waved down at Oscar with a friendly grin. "Heya, Oscar! Come on up, if you want. There's bread and sauce, don't mind these two fighting over it. There's actually plenty left."  
  
Dean watched the small guy approaching the table and kept himself still. It made him feel incredibly oversized, watching Sam and Jacob, and now Oscar, move around with such precise movements. Any of their hands, even Sam’s, being the largest, would barely cover the tip of his finger. Oscar might not even stand as tall as his pinkie if he stood straight, while Sam could at least declare himself the _same_ size as his brother’s fingers.  
  
At least, with their trust, his size could come in handy from time to time. Protecting them from other humans. Giving them a chance to leave the motel behind, at least in Sam and Jacob’s case.  
  
Oscar was another story, considering he was probably just getting over being snatched up off the floor by a barely-awake hunter, and trapped in a fist. Dean was compelled to offer help, hoping to start making up for his impulsive decision. “So, _Oscar,_ ” he said with the edge of his lip turned up, “did you want a hand getting up?”  
  
Oscar's mouth dropped open and he flinched back from Dean's voice. The pink in his cheeks returned yet again, and he found himself wondering if it was worth any further arguing with Dean on that nickname he'd picked out. His tense shoulders dropped and his expression flattened at the realization that it might never get him anywhere.  
  
"I-I can make it myself," he replied with the last of his embarrassment coloring the words. A shaky hand went to his bag while he spoke. He tore his gaze away from the faces above to look as he drew his thread-and-pin climbing line out and uncoiled it. The safety pin opened with an easy push from him.  
  
Seconds later the pin was soaring upwards to a surprising height for someone as thin as Oscar. This was why he used a safety pin and thread; they were some of the lightest materials he had on hand. He needed to be able to climb higher up, so he made sure he'd be able to throw his hook that far. It caught against the edge of the table, anchoring itself in place.  
  
With the climb to focus on, Oscar could almost ignore that he was approaching a human. Putting himself in easy reach. Soon enough, though he tried to take his time, he clambered over the edge of the table. He stood feeling awkward and out of place even though smaller folk outnumbered humans in the room.  
  
“Good to see you made it back,” Sam greeted the smaller man. He was off to the side, away from the articles Dean had spread out along the table. Jacob was trying his hand at helping Dean out with research, giving Sam a chance to sit on one of the books (when he wasn’t arguing over marinara sauce with the hunter) and take a break.  
  
One of the pieces of garlic bread was left to the side, separated from the others so Sam and Jacob didn’t have to worry about Dean going to town on it until they were finished. He gestured at it for Oscar. “Help yourself. We’ve got this piece all to ourselves.” He couldn’t help an entertained grin at the thought. The breadstick had more mass to it than Sam, Jacob and Oscar all together, and they’d need probably about a month or more to finish it on their own. He patted the seat next to him. “You can stick with me if you want. We can let those two keep working.”  
  
Dean snorted. “You’re just looking for an excuse to get out of research,” he grumbled.  
  
With a scoff, Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re just wishing _you’d_ thought of it first,” he jabbed back. They all knew exactly how thrilled Dean was to do research. Normally Sam wouldn’t mind, but with Oscar there… he had a chance to talk to someone other than his family members.   
  
While Jacob walked across the articles to find where he left off again, he smiled encouragingly over at Oscar. The skinny little guy really looked like he could use a little extra food around. Maybe it was harder to raid the kitchens in this motel than it was at _Trails West._ "Put some in your bag, too. There's more than enough."  
  
That suggestion broke Oscar out of his daze. He hurriedly closed up his safety pin and tucked it away in his bag before looking at the bread more closely. A strong, enticing aroma surrounded it, and before he knew it he was inching towards the helping apparently reserved for Sam and Jacob.  
  
That Dean actually gave them so much all to themselves might never cease to amaze him. It simply didn't match everything Oscar had learned about humans.  
  
He took Jacob's advice first, hiding away some of the strong-smelling bread in his bag. Luckily he had some scraps of cloth to wrap it in. Once that was taken care of, he tore away another piece, amazed at the feeling of warm food in his hands. It was no small amount of warm food, either; it would be enough to fill him up for sure, a feeling Oscar simply wasn't familiar with.  
  
After a moment's hesitation, in which he looked across the landscape of newspaper clippings and a huge computer, Oscar made his way over to the book Sam had chosen. He noticed with some embarrassment that the thick tome was a bit high for him, and when he settled himself on it his feet didn't quite reach the table top. That, combined with how tall Sam was, sitting nearby, made Oscar look even smaller.  
  
"Um. Thanks," he managed to get out. There were lingering nerves in his voice, but more than that was a cautious intrigue and plain surprise at how things were going.  
  
"Anytime," Sam said, a welcoming tone in his voice. He held up his own piece. After dipping it into the warm marinara sauce, it closely resembled something more along the lines of a meatball sub, without the meatballs. "You can always try some of the sauce if you want. Dean tries to guard it from us, but he just thinks we don't know he's hoarding another cup of sauce in the box the food came in."  
  
Dean affected an innocent demeanor. "I don't know _what_ you're talking about, pint-size." He turned back to the articles Jacob was standing on, focusing on the research to avoid the knowing look in Sam's eyes. He lightly nudged his adopted brother with a knuckle. "Quit hogging all the articles," he joked.  
  
Oscar watched with slightly widened eyes. Sam had once again teased the human he said was his brother. Instead of getting mad, Dean had simply cracked more jokes and turned the teasing on Jacob instead. Jacob stumbled and turned a flat look over his shoulder at Dean, but resolutely did not get out of his way.  
  
"You have the computer to work on, jackass," Jacob pointed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'd be up for some breadsticks P:
> 
> **Next:** February 26 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


	8. An Offer of Help

Seeing that Dean was good and distracted, Oscar decided to take Sam's offer. He scooted back off the book, landing carefully to avoid an embarrassing stumble. The container of marinara sauce smelled stronger and stronger as he crept towards it, inching forward on quiet feet. He was still too used to sneaking around humans to consider letting his guard down now, no matter that Dean would be able to reach him with a casual sweep of his hand.  
  
The container was like a washtub. Oscar peered into it curiously, taking in the savory aroma. With one last glance at Dean to make sure he knew where those massive hands were, Oscar reached into the sauce cup to scoop a small drop with the end of his piece of bread. It wasn't much; Oscar was used to moderation.  
  
He retreated quickly back to the book, hopping up again to sit upon its edge. His feet swung idly back and forth once he was settled, and he finally tried a bite of the bread.  
  
It was _good._ The bread and the sauce were warm, and immediately the temperature settled in his core as he swallowed down a few bites. He paused to let it settle and turned his head to look at Sam. "I've never had anything this good before," he admitted.  
  
Sam smiled back at him even as Dean nudged Jacob one last time for good measure before turning to the laptop. “Neither did me and Jacob,” he confided in the smaller guy. “Not for years, at least until Dean found us.”  
  
He turned a thoughtful gaze towards the hunter sitting at the table. When he thought about it, Dean was the only person present that was using the table the way it was designed to be used. A furrow in Dean’s brow pointed to how intent he was on the research, how intent he was on getting to the bottom of things. He was determined to keep as many people alive as possible, no matter what it took.  
  
Sam came back to himself, and turned slightly towards Oscar. “It’s strange, how different things are like this,” he said. “You take things for granted when you’re a human, and when you lose it, there’s no going back. The last thing we ever expected was to get another chance after losing everything.”  
  
While Sam talked, Oscar wolfed down more of the food. It was tasty and it filled up his aching stomach. He rarely had the option to eat so much in one sitting. Normally he'd have to ration it out carefully to last as long as he could make it without passing out in the meantime. Here, he had plenty freely offered to him, and more stowed in his bag to wait until the next time his stomach pined.  
  
He could see the appeal of what Sam described. Having a human around that could get them as much food as they wanted ... it was probably really nice. The way Sam talked about it, Oscar found himself wanting to _believe_ him.  
  
"So ... you two really _were..._ " he trailed off, though it would be hard for Sam to miss the word he'd left out. Human. Sam and Jacob had been human once, and had had it taken away from them until they were left in an existence Oscar wouldn't wish on anyone.  
  
He tried again. "So you knew what it was like to be ... y'know. Big." He chuckled breathily at that, knowing that even now, Sam could be seen as quite big, sitting next to Oscar.  
  
Sam let out a laugh. “Yeah. We really were.” He knew exactly how hard it was to believe. Even _knowing_ that curses and witches and other dark things lurked out in the world, he'd had a hard time believing it, and _he_ was the one that had been shrunk. Being forced to eventually accept the truth and accept that his family had left him was one of the hardest realizations of his life.  
  
“I was only ten,” Sam explained. “Jacob was about… fourteen. So he made it bigger than me. It was hard to believe at first, but I got that first look at a motel room… and hey. Can't deny the flat out truth.” He kicked his foot against the book with a quiet _thump_ , remembering those first days. It was hard to remember the time before that, when he'd lived at the same scale as Dean. Those memories hardly made sense through the lens that being small had placed over his eyes.  
  
“I've spent more than half my life like this,” he went on. “Jacob's only been this way for about… three years. I don't remember much of what it was like to be big, but Jacob remembers it all. It wasn't until about a month ago that Dean found us, really. We've only been on the road with him for a few weeks.”  
  
Oscar's expression became one of surprise once more. _Only a few weeks. Only a few weeks and they've been hanging around a huge human._ Oscar couldn't imagine _ever_ getting used to being close enough that a human could pocket him any time. Maybe it helped to have another small brother around.  
  
"I bet it would be weird to start out big and end up like this," he conceded. "I can't really imagine it. Sorry you got ... cursed or whatever." Oscar stared thoughtfully at what was left of his bread. He really couldn't wrap his head around it. To him, humans had always been giants to be avoided, and yet they were the source of the dropped scraps and supplies he needed to survive.  
  
Thinking of how hard it was to live this way while everything around them catered to human size ... it really was a curse.  
  
"I started going out for my own supplies when I was about seven. So I guess we've been at it for almost the same amount of time," he mused, taking a guess at Sam's age.  
  
Sam felt a jolt run through him at that. _Seven? He was only seven?_ It forced him to think back to when he was a kid, just recently downsized. Walt had been adamant about letting him go to any of the rooms for years after he was cursed. _Was it because I wasn’t used to being small? Would I have learned things much earlier if I spent my entire life like this?_  
  
“I didn’t get to go to any rooms until I was around twelve,” Sam told Oscar. His voice lowered to keep from distracting the two working on research. “My adopted parents were afraid I’d get into trouble. Since I was, y’know, human once. Honestly, I never wanted to go near any of the humans. I just wished my family would come back. I always wanted to see them again, even if it was just one more time. I _knew_ Dean wouldn’t be like those humans my adopted dad Walt told me about. Dean always wanted to protect me, keep me out of trouble. He’d _never_ keep me trapped.”  
  
Sam considered things for a moment. “So, is it different here? Do you learn what you need to survive earlier on? I always wondered if it was because I was different than everyone else. Of course,” he added as an aside, “Jacob didn't start to learn until he was past fifteen, and he still wasn’t going out to the rooms on his own when Dean found us.”  
  
Oscar glanced over at Jacob, and tried to imagine waiting until he was fifteen, or even twelve, to start learning how to find supplies and food. He would never have survived, but then again Sam and Jacob were lucky enough to have someone to take them in. They might not have lasted long or kept their freedom without help.  
  
Oscar, on the other hand, didn't have the option to wait. He guessed that being so small all his life helped him prepare a little better, and yet when he'd stepped out of the walls by himself the first time, he'd been beyond nervous. Hunger drove him out there, rushing for the first crumbs he could find.  
  
He was the only one he had back then, after all.  
  
"I dunno when people usually start," he admitted. After only a brief hesitation, he continued in an even quieter voice, "There are others on the other end of the motel but none of them are my age. I never asked when they got started. They helped me out once or twice when I was still learning." Without that help, Oscar might not have made it. Being on his own starting from such a young age, he hadn't had a choice but to grow up fast (sadly, the growing taller part never picked up much steam).  
  
Oscar finished off his bread and found that he very much liked the feeling in his belly. His whole body seemed to be overjoyed to have so much food in it at one time. He wondered if humans felt like that all the time. They had so much food they could drop some of it and still be well fed. In fact, Oscar's survival depended on that fact.  
  
"They keep a lot of traps in the kitchen here. I know the others go sometimes when they're desperate but I uh. I'm usually too scared to try." Oscar was usually able to get by without it anyway. He didn't need much, it being only him in his home, and on rare occasions, he helped the others in return for some extra food.  
  
Sam also finished off his food, thinking hard about everything Oscar had just told him. _People on the other side of the motel..._ Not once had Oscar mentioned any family or friends nearby. He'd been all alone in Dean's room when he'd been caught...  
  
Was there anyone that would miss him?  
  
The thought hurt Sam more than he thought it would. If there was no one to miss him, there'd be no one to help him. If it was anyone but Dean that had grabbed him, he might have never escaped. At least if there was someone else around, there was a sliver of hope.  
  
"Oscar, are you alone?" Sam blurted out, loud enough to attract a curious glance from Dean, his green eyes peering over at the two on the book.  
  
Oscar flinched in surprise from the sudden volume. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Dean was looking in their direction now. Even Jacob glanced over curiously. Oscar felt his cheeks warming under the sudden attention. He'd heard of the phrase _stage fright_ but he'd never thought he'd understand the feeling for what it was. He was on the spot.  
  
"W-well, I ... yeah?" he answered, unsure of what he was supposed to say. Did Sam intend for him to elaborate? There wasn't much to it. The situation was what it was. Oscar was alone, and he had been for most of his life.  
  
"It's not like ... I was just a kid and I couldn't have found my way to the others by myself. And by the time they figured it out I'd already kinda gotten myself established and stuff, so I was fine."  
  
"I'm sorry," Sam said softly. He didn't know what else to say. Or what else he _could_ say. Even when he'd first been cursed he'd never been alone like that. Dean and John might have been gone, but Walt and Mallory had stepped in to help him adjust and survive. Oscar had had to learn that stuff by himself. Sam’s heart sank with the knowledge of why the little guy started going for supplies at _seven._  
  
After ascertaining that nothing was wrong, Dean turned back to the computer, poking Jacob lightly in the side to get him back on task too. Sam was thankful for that, considering how red Oscar was after being in the spotlight. He wasn't used to being around _anyone..._ Three people all at once must be a shock, nevermind that one of them was a human.  
  
"So," Sam said, trying to guide the conversation away from a painful subject. "Do you have your own place nearby?"  
  
Oscar sighed and the tension slowly unfurled in his shoulders. "Yeah, I've got a place," he answered, still in a soft voice. He was so unused to talking out loud to someone, he had to make sure he wasn't mumbling like he did when he talked to himself in the cozy confines of his home.  
  
"I keep it pretty insulated, too. The motel flooded a few years back and the folks from the other side had to come over here to wait out all the repairs." That had been probably the most lively time of Oscar's life. Playing host to a couple other families had been exhausting but he'd never think of turning them away. They'd all be out of luck if someone got caught out  
  
“That’s a lot like where we lived,” Sam said as he followed along. “The family that adopted us was only close to one other family… the others were far enough across the motel that we only rarely got to see them. There were a few times where we’d help each other out when food was scarce, but they mostly kept to themselves.”  
  
Brushing his hands off, Sam hopped off of the book. “We might not be here long, but you’re welcome to whatever food we have,” he offered kindly. “I’m sure we’ll be here for some time. We’ve got work, after all.”  
  
He went over to where a bottlecap was sitting on its own, a drop of coke left for him and Jacob to drink. He gathered it up and took it back over to the book. “And you can’t go wrong with some soda.”  
  
Oscar looked at the offered bottle cap with some intrigue and surprise. It was one of many things that he'd never tried, but he'd always wanted to. Humans seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, so he wondered if it was as good as they made it seem. He reached for it tentatively, but then thought better of it and reached into his bag. He drew out a cup he'd made out of aluminum foil and filled it from the larger container.  
  
"Thanks," he murmured out, glancing over at Dean and Jacob. They remained focused on whatever they were reading. Whatever they were in the motel to do, they were clearly driven to get it done. "So ... what are you here for?" he asked, unable to withhold his curiosity.  
  
Sam sat back down. He watched the others work for a moment in silence while he thought over how much he should tell Oscar. Dean was always careful with how he phrased things with others… but it wasn’t like Oscar was about to call the police on them. The killings were happening near his home. He deserved to know.  
  
“We’re checking out the motel and the area around it,” Sam said. “There’s been some strange deaths around the area… humans getting crushed. Most people brush it off as accidents, but there’s been too many to just be a coincidence. So we’re here to figure it out, maybe save a few people in the process if we can find the danger.”  
  
Oscar was about to take a drink of the soda, tasting it for the first time, but he winced visibly instead. "Crushed," he echoed quietly, barely more than a breath. "Like to death?" he asked. It sounded bad enough thinking about it happening to one of his own kind. Something that could crush a human had to be gigantic. There would be nothing left of him, or even the four-inch-tall Sam.  
  
"Kind of ... kind of a weird thing to happen to a lot of people at once," he stammered. "It's weird. The other day one of the maids was talking about a girl that works in the office here, said a cabinet fell right over on her outta nowhere. I don't think she died, though."  
  
To take his mind away from the gruesome topic, he finally took a drink of the soda and raised his eyebrows at the new flavor. It was good, though he found his thoughts drifting back to humans getting crushed and set his cup down beside him.  
  
"If all the really heavy stuff is starting to fall I wonder if we're in danger too..." he muttered, almost to himself.  
  
“Yeah, it is weird…” Sam said. He wasn't eager to share their theory of it being a vengeful spirit with the small guy. In some ways, the world was terrifying enough without discovering all the things that went bump in the night. Oscar would be happier not knowing.  
  
He'd also be in more danger if there _was_ something in the motel. It was a painful conundrum. If they told him, he could protect himself. If they didn't tell him, trouble might find him when he least expected it.  
  
“Oscar, do you know what room that cabinet fell on the girl?” Sam asked, buying himself time to think things through. As much as he hated the thought, there was no way they could let Oscar leave without at least a warning sent his way. And this… they hadn't heard anything about this in the news or paper, since no one had died. This could be a new clue.  
  
Oscar thought about it. He’d checked the main office of the motel recently. It was always good to keep an eye on them in there, in case they got notions of calling pest control or remodeling something. Neither possibility was hugely likely at this motel, which tried to get by with less harsh methods (like setting several traps in the kitchen) to avoid the extra cost.  
  
The cabinets in the main office had been as dusty as always. The files and books stacked on top were arranged as they’d always been. “I don’t think it was the office. Gotta be room one. They don’t rent it out, they just store extra furniture and junk in there,” Oscar replied, nodding to himself as he became more sure of himself. He’d been to room one before, and seen all the towering furniture stacked in there, cliffs of cheap wood and plastic all looming far overhead.  
  
“What do you think you’ll find in there?” he had to ask, turning a curious look up at Sam.  
  
“Hmm?” Sam said, caught in thought. “Oh. Well, we’re searching for the cause of these attacks. With so many and all done in such a similar fashion, we think it might be a vengeful spirit. Maybe someone that died the same way seeking revenge.” He nodded to the salt lines placed in front of the door and the windows, finally explaining the strange actions of the brothers. “Salt keeps spirits out, and can even dispel them if they attack. Dean and Jacob are trying to find something in the history of the motel that sends up a red flag, but so far we’ve got bupkes.”  
  
Oscar's eyes widened. His first inclination was to tell Sam he was crazy, they were all crazy, and that he was leaving. His eyes trailed over to the piles of salt near the door and window, and he remembered thinking it was one of the weirder things a guest had ever done. A glance up at Dean showed the craziest part of all of this. Sam and Jacob weren't afraid around a _human._  
  
Oscar had to be willing to admit that _something_ weird must be going on, if it attracted such an odd trio to the motel. He took a drink of the soda, allowing himself to enjoy the sweet drink for a moment while he thought over his answer.  
  
"Well, um. That's. Vengeful spirits? Around here?" He frowned, distressed by the very idea. "No, that can't be it," he said with an emphatic shake of the head. "I woulda heard about someone dying here. There would be police or something."  
  
“Maybe.” Sam shook his head briefly, annoyance showing through. “But sometimes deaths go unnoticed. People get kidnapped, murders are covered up… if something happened like that, the ghost might strike out, trying to seek revenge or seek justice. We just need to find the right clue… if it _is_ a vengeful spirit, there’s a way to get rid of them. Put them back to rest.”  
  
“And that’s where we come in,” Dean said, interrupting at last. Oscar’s gaze whipped upwards in surprise as the voice rumbled around him. “Everything will go back to normal once we can track down the spirit.” He crossed his arms, staring down at Oscar and Sam. “The sooner we find the source, the less likely it is that anyone else will get hurt.”  
  
Jacob glanced over as Dean spoke, and the scene held his gaze. He'd been listening idly to the conversation over on the book, as much as he could. Sometimes Oscar had gone too quiet for Jacob to hear from where he stood. Dean's voice, however, was hard to miss. As was his presence, leaning on his crossed arms to focus on Sam and Oscar.  
  
The latter of whom had a very solid grip on his aluminum foil cup. "Oh. R-right, of course," he answered meekly, glancing between Sam and Dean as if he'd just been scolded. Seeing the intensity that had even surfaced on Sam's face, Jacob sighed and made his way in that direction. He had his hands casually in his hoodie pocket and his demeanor was far less focused, though he was just as keen to get to the bottom of the case as the others.  
  
"Hey, it's pretty tough to believe. I remember when I found out about ghosts and things. But really, when you think about it, humans say people like _us_ are just as impossible, right?" he said, hoping to get Oscar thinking about something other than the human leaning over them. Sam and Jacob may be used to Dean's size, but Oscar had only met them that day, and not under the best circumstances. He needed time.  
  
Oscar sat up a little straighter, realizing that Jacob was completely right. A lot of what he thought was real or not came from what he'd heard from humans. "Well, that's true. Maybe ... maybe I'll try to visit the people on the other side and see if they saw anything over there," he offered, unsure if he could be any help beyond that. He didn't _want_ humans to keep dying around the motel. That was both tragic and dangerous, because it drew too much attention.  
  
“Anything you can do,” Sam said, switching back into his softer demeanor with effort. The intensity had come out naturally the moment he was focused on the case. “We’d appreciate the help.” Someone like Oscar would know all of the ins and the outs of the place. Even Sam and Jacob, though they could get _into_ the walls, wouldn’t be able to find all the secrets in such a short amount of time. It was just too _big_... like exploring an entire town and trying to find one hidden cellar door. A needle in a haystack.  
  
With one of the inhabitants helping them out, that timetable would be cut down immensely.  
  
“If you happen to find anything about the spirit, come right back to us,” Sam warned. “ _Don’t_ go near it. If it comes down to it, throw salt at it and _run_ , as fast as you can. We’re here to help, so get us as soon as you can.”  
  
Oscar actually let out a quiet laugh, a short, incredulous one but unmistakable nonetheless. "I'm not going _towards_ some ghost for anything!" he replied, his eyebrows shooting up. The fact that these guys did exactly that was amazing enough.  
  
Jacob smirked. "Probably a good idea, man. We're not even sure why exactly they're attacking yet, so they could lash out at anyone." Jacob didn't bring it up, but he was certain they were all aware in the back of their minds. If a spirit was going around crushing people, Sam, Jacob and Oscar would be the easiest targets it ever found.  
  
Oscar finished off his soda, grateful that he'd gotten a chance to try it. Even if that came about from a scenario that was unnerving at best and plain terrifying at worst. He tucked it away in his cloth bag, before scooting forward to hop down from the book.  
  
"I should probably get going, then, if I'm gonna help," he determined, scuffing one of his small shoes over a scratch in the tabletop. "It'll take me a while to get over there and back."  
  
Sam hopped down next to him, and Dean stood to put away the food. They finally had a direction to go in, instead of cooling their heels in the room going around in circles. The frustration had a palpable feeling at times during research.   
  
Dean’s hand closed around the cup of marinara sauce, dragging it away as Sam addressed Oscar.  
  
“If you’re up for it, we can give you a ride to the other side of the motel,” he offered. “It’ll only take Dean a few minutes to walk there, and we can drop you off before we hit up that room. Dean’s pockets have room for all of us, no problem.” Dean probably wouldn’t even notice the extra weight that Oscar added to his pockets, he was so small.  
  
Oscar's expression switched right back to surprise. His brown eyes were wide as he glanced over at Dean. He was huge. He could hold them all in one _hand_ if he wanted to.  
  
Jacob took the last few steps to join the two by the book while Dean packed away the food for later. "It'd be a faster trip and you wouldn't need to overwork yourself," he chimed in. “And seeing as you just offered to help us out, we already owe you anyway."  
  
The offer from both of them gave Oscar pause. He was still so nervous around Dean, but these two weren't at all. They were a lot bigger and looked a lot stronger than he did, but Oscar doubted that made any difference with a human so big.  
  
Their confidence went a long way towards inspiring some in Oscar, too. "I could try," he answered, his voice quiet but resolved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As timid as Oscar is, he always finds himself willing to help out :3
> 
> **Next:** February 28 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!
> 
> Starting after this story comes to a close, posting will only occur on Sundays and Wednesdays at 9pm!


	9. Forgetting His Size

Dean returned to the table, tucking the EMF meter into an inside pocket of his jacket. “I guess it’s time to get this show on the road then,” he said brashly. He gave Oscar a wink. “Don’t worry. If I ever do things too fast, Sam never lets me hear the end of it. Like really. He never shuts up.”  
  
Sam crossed his arms, giving Dean a flat glare of his own. Dean stubbornly ignored the small glare, simply holding out a hand flat against the table. “I’ve got steady hands,” he promised hopefully.  
  
Rolling his eyes, Sam stepped up. “He’s right about that, at least.” He hoped that standing so casually on the living platform would help Oscar get his courage up. Morning grab aside, the hunter really _was_ harmless when it came to them. Aside from his penchant for playful nudges, he’d never made any threatening moves towards them since the unfortunate mix up with him wondering if Jacob was something he’d need to hunt. Sam had cleared that up as soon as he’d realized just _who_ the human was.  
  
Oscar watched as Jacob followed suit, standing easily on Dean's hand. With the three of them all waiting on him, he took some hasty steps forward, but stopped when Dean's fingertips were right in front of him. Those digits were bigger than he was.  
  
Oscar took a short, deep breath, hoping the exhale carried some of his trepidation out with it. He stepped carefully onto the hand and immediately paused, feeling the skin beneath his shoes in one of the strangest textures he'd ever stood upon. The calluses were thick enough that he hardly had any impact on them. Dean’s pulse had more effect on _him._  
  
When Dean didn't change his mind and grab them all in a fist, Oscar shuffled closer to his palm for a more stable position. His hands were both gripping the strap of his bag to calm his nerves.  
  
"Guess it's not so bad," he muttered, glancing back over the edge of the hand while it still rested on the table. Dean had three whole people standing on his hand. Oscar hoped that Sam and Jacob were right and that this was safe.  
  
Dean waited patiently for them all to get settled on his hand, fascinated at the size difference even between just Sam and Oscar. The new guy was just so _little_ next to them… he was lucky if he reached Sam’s chest. Small enough that Dean was having a hard time feeling even his cloth-covered footsteps as he walked to the center. The lack of tiny leather boots made more of a difference than he’d ever have guessed.  
  
“Here we go, guys,” Dean murmured down at them. He curled up his fingers before lifting it off the table, conscious of every move with a new person on his hand. _Three_ entire people on his hand, for the first time ever. He’d adjusted to Sam and Jacob, but they were much bigger than Oscar. Every little sway could knock the guy over. For the first time, Dean saw that his two little brothers were actually very sturdy for their size.  
  
He lifted them up to eye level, briefly looking over them to make sure that Oscar was okay so far. “Hanging in there, Oz?” This time, a layer of concern wrapped around the joking nickname.  
  
Oscar looked across at the huge eyes, recognizing the care in them. At least Dean wasn't moving them around too quickly. Oscar thought he was likely enough to topple over as it was. His knees wanted to buckle under him for what he was doing. Somehow, he was in this situation _willingly_.  
  
He had walked onto a human's hand and allowed that human to just pick him up. Adrenaline coursed through him, but didn't know what to do with itself since Oscar didn't want to bolt or hide.  
  
He was higher up than would be safe for him if he fell; the table below would break his tiny bones for sure. He was in plain view of a human. That human's own fingers provided the railing that helped Oscar avoid falling. There was a pulse beneath Oscar's feet and a faint swaying in the limb that propped them all up.  
  
He nodded shakily. "I'm fine. Yeah. This is just... really new. I can't believe you do this all the time."  
  
Dean grinned back. “You’re telling me. There’s nothing else even close to this. It’ll only be for a few minutes, at least.” He met Sam’s eyes. “Watch out for him, okay?”  
  
He waited until he got a nod back from Sam to start lowering his hand down. Sam put his hand on Oscar’s back, helping him keep his balance as they approached the pocket. Sam could hoist Oscar up easier than Dean could lift a kitten, and he wouldn’t let the little guy fall.  
  
Dean’s other hand came near, two fingers propping the small cavern open for them to see inside. It was dark, but he’d checked if he’d left any change inside before they’d gotten on his hand. It would be a safe place for them to sit.  
  
The hand with Sam, Jacob and Oscar on it dipped inside, tipping in order to be able to fit. The fingers below caught Sam as he started to slide down, and he shot out an arm to keep Oscar from falling down. Sam stepped off the thick fingers and landed on the swinging ground, holding a hand out for Oscar to help him down.  
  
Jacob braced himself using Dean's thumb, waiting for Oscar to hop down first. It'd be a good idea to have Sam and Jacob on either side of the little guy, considering he wasn't used to traveling this way "Don't worry, dude. Easy as pie, and then you'll be at the other end of the motel way faster than you thought."  
  
Oscar glanced over his shoulder at the younger but much taller man and gave him a faint, sheepish smile. _The long trip was the least of my worries,_ he thought, but didn't bother saying it.  
  
He took Sam's offer of help and hopped down to the bottom of the pocket, followed by Jacob. The surface beneath them, if you could really call it much of a surface, was impossible to keep steady on. Oscar ended up falling to a seated position, and he didn't even make a move to stand back up.  
  
Looking up at the opening of the pocket, he asked, "This is really how you guys travel when he goes outside? And ... you don't ever feel trapped?"  
  
Sam punched Dean’s finger to let him know they were all set, and let himself fall into the corner next to Oscar as the hand vanished back into the open motel room air. He shook his head. “Not even a little,” he said confidently. “Dean might kid around with us, but he’d never _trap_ us. I’ve gotten stuck in a pocket from time to time for a joke, but if any of us ever get scared, the joke’s over in a heartbeat. He’ll have you back out in open air, and put you down if that’s what you want.”  
  
The pocket started to sway with Dean’s strides. Since they weren’t in the chest pocket like normal (it wasn’t big enough to fit three of them without the bulge being noticeable from the outside), the motion was more prominent, carrying the three of them along to Dean’s planned destination.  
  
Sam wrapped his arms around his legs, opting to try and take up as little space as possible, since he was the biggest of the three. “He really _is_ someone you can trust with your life in his hands. He just wants to help people, and size doesn’t matter to him.”  
  
Oscar wobbled where he sat, shaky from Dean's gait. He felt one of Jacob's hands on his back for a second, making sure he wouldn't tip over. Once Oscar managed to grab hold of the weave of the fabric around them, the faint pressure left. The two looking out for him helped make the situation less frightening. If Oscar was alone in the pocket, he would already be a terrified ball.  
  
"Dean was actually really careful when he first found me, too. And he didn't even know about Sam at the time," Jacob explained, hoping his experience would help. So long as he left out the part with the vase, it wasn’t so bad at all.  
  
Oscar peered at Jacob with surprise. He had to remind himself that Dean must have met these two somehow. They probably didn't just walk up to him and say hello. Jacob had to be caught first before Dean could realize he was dealing with two formerly human-sized people.  
  
"I just got scared earlier because I thought he wouldn't let me go," Oscar explained, feeling strangely compelled to stand up for his reaction. "That's what I always thought humans would be like ... And I wondered if maybe he caught you and ..." he trailed off. Thinking that Dean had been keeping the two against their will had been an easy assumption to make the night before.  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Sam reassured him. “Dean won’t take it personally. Jacob took a while to warm up to him too. He understands it’s a _lot_ to ask of someone. The only reason I was comfortable with him for the first few days is because we grew up together… no matter what, I _knew_ he’d never let anything happen to me, so it made it easier to get over the whole size thing.”  
  
The outside world lightened, a stream of sunlight slipping into the top of the pocket as Dean left the motel room behind them. The door slammed behind them. Once again, they were out in the open world with Dean as their only protection, and Oscar had let himself be taken out willingly, a hard choice for anyone to make. Especially since he’d only met them that day.  
  
Sam thought to himself about Oscar’s situation. “Look, just… if you get scared, let us know, okay? We can tell Dean to tone it down. He means well, he just forgets how big he is sometimes. He’ll start thinking we’re normal sized, and you can usually tell when he remembers…”  
  
Oscar had to snicker faintly at that. "He _forgets_ how big he is?" he repeated, thinking it the strangest thought ever. Oscar would never be able to forget his own small size.  
  
"He does," Jacob confirmed with a grin, glad to see an actual smile on the little guy's face for once, no matter how fleeting. He could still remember how much Oscar had been shaking when Jacob had had to hug him just to keep him from panicking at the sight of Dean. "He just likes to kid around. I mean, you already got a dose of it, since he won't quit calling you Oz. He doesn't mean anything by it."  
  
Sam snorted at that. “At least it’s just Oz. You should hear the nicknames he slings at us. My personal favorite is ‘half-pint.’ ” He flashed Jacob a smirk, remembering the way _he’d_ been teased for being called ‘pint-size’ and how hilarious Jacob had found it before he’d gotten stuck with his own nickname.  
  
“It’s how he treats everyone,” Sam affirmed. “So don’t feel put out by it. He knows when he needs to be serious.”  
  
"Well that's a relief," Oscar replied quickly, his eyes fixed upwards. He was catching glimpses of a blue sky above them. It wasn't something he got to see very often, and never before from anything other than a window. The color seemed so much more pure, even though he only got snatches of it as Dean moved.  
  
"Do you get back at him for it? Call him any nicknames?" he asked, finally tearing his gaze away from the opening of the pocket and looking back and forth between the two brothers.  
  
Jacob chuckled. "Not as much. We just give him a lot of shit."  
  
Sam tried to suppress a smile. “We’ll have to give him one sometime. See how _he_ likes it. I’m pretty sure ‘King Kong’ or ‘Godzilla’ would fit perfectly.”  
  


* * *

  
Dean glanced around at his surroundings, wondering if he was far enough on ‘the other side of the motel’ for Oscar’s destination. He’d passed the main office a minute ago, marking room one, where the girl had almost been crushed. Soon, they’d check it out.  
  
First, he had to get Oscar safely back in the walls.  
  
Dean backed against the wall in a hidden alcove, putting himself out of sight from anyone unless they were standing directly in front of him. He pinched open the pocket on the side of his jacket. “Hey guys,” he said, keeping his voice down in case anyone else happened close by. The three small forms could just barely be made out in the darkness. “Oz, what room should I drop you off in?”  
  
Oscar had his head tilted all the way back, looking up at Dean with a look of mild surprise on his face. Looking past the use of the silly nickname, he still couldn't believe he'd actually just gotten a ride from a _human._ A trek that could have taken him an hour or more navigating the passages in the walls of the motel had become mere minutes of travel.  
  
He realized that the pause was drawing out, staring at the huge face looking down at them, when Jacob nudged his arm. "Oscar, doin' okay?" he muttered. "Where should Dean drop you off?"  
  
He shook his head to clear it of any extra thoughts. "I think ... room three," he called up, hoping his voice would be loud enough for Dean. The others lived nearest to room five, but Oscar didn't want to give their location away to an unknown human. Even if he was putting in an effort to conquer his fear of Dean, the others wouldn't be so keen on the idea.  
  
Dean nodded to show he’d heard the answer, letting the pocket close back up. He strolled confidently out of the alcove, nothing in his demeanor giving away the fact that he was acting as public transport for a person the size of his pinkie.  
  
In no time at all, he located room three. He gave the parking lot a brief glance. There wasn’t a car in sight, so he pulled out his lockpick out from the inside pocket of his jacket. He brushed against the pocket with passengers while getting it out, a side-effect of the multitude of pockets he’d sewn into the jacket himself.  
  
“Almost there, guys,” he muttered under his breath as he got to work. The light metallic tink of the lockpicks filled the air before there was a triumphant click, admitting them into the dark interior.  
  
Dean flipped on a light, letting the door shut behind him as he stepped in. He stuck his hand into his pocket again and let the fingers curl into a platform for them to climb onto, then waited.  
  
Oscar couldn't stop a flinch. The sight of such a huge hand coming right for them set all his instincts on edge and his body determined it should try to get away before his mind could catch up and remind it that he was safe. He immediately blushed fire and avoided meeting the others' gazes, knowing they'd seen his surprised recoil.  
  
Jacob helped him climb onto the curled fingers, thankfully not saying a thing about his flinch. Oscar found himself staring at the thick skin that they clambered onto, noticing the details of the calluses there. It was so thick, especially compared to theirs.  
  
"It definitely takes some getting used to," Jacob told him quietly, offering an encouraging smile. "You're doing great, man."  
  
Sam climbed up next to them, once again punching against a finger to let Dean know they were ready. The fingers curled closer inwards, making Sam knock back into Jacob. He held his tongue this time on any complaints, knowing it was only done so there was no risk of them falling from such a height. Normally Dean's hands weren't this full, after all.  
  
A new motel room came into sight, more of the tacky knight-themed decorations visible. Dean didn't bother lifting them up at all this time. He knelt down as soon as they were free of the pocket, lowering his hand to the floor below.   
  
Level with the floor, the fingers uncurled and flattened around them so Oscar could get down with just a step.  
  
Oscar took that step as soon as he could, and then stumbled a few extra ones as he found himself on solid ground again. With his feet sinking into the carpet fibers, he never realized how much he appreciated that the ground didn't sway and pulse beneath him. It was so hard to stand on Dean's hand and he had no idea how Sam and Jacob did it.  
  
Dean had actually released him to that solid ground without any conflict. He hadn't tried to keep Oscar trapped in his pocket. He'd just ... helped him. Without asking anything in return.  
  
"Um. Thanks for that," Oscar called up, once again finding that he had to speak louder than he was used to. He wanted to make sure Dean heard. "I'll ... find out what I can and come back to where you were staying I guess."  
  
"Sure thing, man. We'll keep an eye out for you," Jacob answered with a nod. Oscar was a lot braver than he gave himself credit for. Even Jacob had taken a day before deciding to go and visit Dean again.  
  
Oscar nodded, and then managed to look away from the human kneeling so close by. His nerves didn't appreciate that decision, but he made his way first and foremost towards the wall. _He's not gonna grab he's not gonna grab he's not gonna grab_ became a mantra that halfway comforted him as he went. He had a trek ahead of him, but at least he knew the threat wasn’t real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean might forget he's so much bigger than everyone else, but they always have to stay alert around him... poor guy.
> 
> Leave a review to let us know if you like it!
> 
> **Next:** February 28 th at 9pm est.
> 
> Starting after this story comes to a close, posting will only occur on Sundays and Wednesdays at 9pm!


	10. See How You Like It

Dean stood slowly, holding the hand with Sam and Jacob in it cupped against his chest for stability. He waited calmly, watching until Oscar had safely reached cover. After taking the small guy out of his realm of safety, Dean considered himself responsible for anything that happened to him until he was back to the walls. Those tiny strides were swift, but they wouldn’t be able to get Oscar out of danger if something bigger came at him.  
  
Once Oscar vanished from sight, Dean let out a sigh of relief. “Alright. Time to get to work.” He lowered Sam and Jacob back down into the same pocket, letting them slip off his fingers.  
  
With them safely concealed, he left the room behind and headed for the room next to the office. They’d have to do a sweep of the room, see if there was anything out of the ordinary, any EMF or ectoplasm around to point to a spirit lurking nearby. Anything in that storage room could be anchoring an unfriendly spirit to the area.  
  
He nodded at a passerby as he walked back, his hand casually hovering over the pocket that contained the vulnerable Sam and Jacob. Even on a warm, peaceful day like today, the world was dangerous for them to be outside. Dean had taken on responsibility for them, too, months before.  
  
Again he found himself outside by a door, glancing surreptitiously around while he picked the lock. For a moment, he wondered if he should teach Sam and Jacob how; it was one of the most useful skills in his arsenal. With their small size, they might be able to actually _see_ the tumblers inside while they worked and do it faster than he ever could, regardless of his experience.  
  
The door clicked open and he ducked inside, shutting it behind him with another soft click. Furniture was stacked _everywhere,_ looming above even his head. He slipped his hand into his pocket, waiting for the other two to willingly put themselves in his grasp, an action that never failed to amaze him. He could feel exactly how fragile they were in the movement of small hands and nearly microscopic fingers as they climbed in and they did it without hesitation after only a month together.  
  
Once he felt a small punch, he curled his fingers together and cautiously lifted them out. Like with Oscar, he wasted no time lowering them down to the ground and holding out his hand. “Don’t go near _anything_ that might fall over,” Dean said grimly. If this thing could crush humans, someone the size of his hand wouldn’t stand a chance.  
  
While he and Sam hopped to the floor, Jacob raised his eyebrows and tilted his head back to stare at the stacks of furniture all around. The enormous, heavy things piled even higher than Dean's considerable height reminded Jacob vaguely of a trip to Chicago he'd taken when he was a kid, before he was cursed. Skyscrapers had stretched into the sky and loomed overhead just as much as that furniture did. The perspective played tricks on his eyes and he thought for a moment that the stacks leaned closer.  
  
Or maybe it wasn’t a trick of the light. Jacob eyed a stack of chairs that looked to have a dangerous tilt to it and his mouth twisted into a frown. "We'll do our best. Same goes for you, though. Someone's already been hurt in here once."  
  
Even Dean wouldn't be able to do much but duck out of the way and hope nothing crashed into him if this stuff started to fall. It was mostly too heavy to just shove it out of the way and redirect it, especially if a spirit was calling the shots in here. When a vengeful spirit wanted something to happen hard enough, it tended to go exactly like they planned.  
  
With his hands free, Dean was able to hold out his EMF reader to sweep the room while Sam and Jacob crept along the floor. It was like the room itself was holding its breath. Even without ghostly activity, it was so strange that someone thought it was a good idea to stack heavy things so high.  
  
"These guys ever hear of a storage unit?" Jacob muttered, brushing his hand over some dust on a spare dresser.  
  
“Tell me about it,” Dean muttered. He kicked a boot curiously against the tower of chairs, taking note of how stable they were to see if it was possible the accident earlier was just that… an accident. They didn’t even creak against each other. “At least they’d have more room in a storage unit. And an extra room to rent out for a night. I’m _sure_ the motel fills up at least _sometimes_.”  
  
The EMF meter didn’t make a sound as he held it over the different stacks of furniture throughout the room, keeping a steady watch on the floor all the while. Aside from having Sam and Jacob to watch out for, the motel had other people that lived inside the walls. He wouldn’t want to drop his guard for a moment. A second of inattention would cost them too much, no matter how unlikely they were to come out into the open.  
  
Sam followed along behind Jacob, keeping a sharp eye overhead. He was more concerned with the possibility of falling furniture than he was of Dean walking around. While Jacob examined the dresser, he watched for any possible topples.  
  
The room offered up no clues to them for a while. The EMF remained silent, and the precarious stacks of furniture remained surprisingly stable even with Dean walking around in the room. His footsteps, which Sam and Jacob could feel easily through the floor, hardly even disturbed the dust clinging to all the extra pieces.  
  
They even found the cabinet that had fallen, stood back up with a dent on the side. Jacob cringed at the thought that it had actually fallen on a woman; at the very least, she was probably nursing broken legs now. Nothing about the tall metal block looked unsteady, but it didn't cause the EMF reader to squeal either.  
  
Jacob was about to suggest that maybe this room wasn't related to their case after all. There were no signs of ectoplasm or anything that indicated a spirit in here. Only huge-ass stacks of furniture the motel should probably be throwing out anyway.  
  
Then he felt a sudden chill up his spine and paused, looking around. Normally, a little cold was nothing new. At this reduced size, maintaining body heat was harder than it was for Dean. It was part of what made the pockets so comfortable to sleep in. But this chill ... there was something about it that Jacob didn't think he should ignore.  
  
"You felt that, right?" he asked, looking to Sam.  
  
The EMF reader didn't give him a breath to wait for an answer before it flared to life, its red lights glowing brightly. There was a telltale wobble in a bedframe leaned against the wall, before it tilted away from its position, with no warning other than the creak of cheap old metal.  
  
“Whoa!”  
  
Dean leapt to the side, barely sidestepping out of the way of the heavy furniture. Mere moments ago, it was as stable as anything in the room. Now, it slammed into the ground with a heavy metallic crash.  
  
He hit the ground a foot away, going straight to a crouch. “Sam? Jacob?” he called out, the sawed-off already in hand as he glanced around the room. If he was going to risk shooting it, he’d need to know where they were. The scatter shot of the gun wouldn’t kill Dean, but it would be more than enough to take out either of his small brothers.  
  
“Thank god,” he muttered when he spotted them over on the ground to the side, far enough away to escape the fall of the bedframe without a scratch. They were picking each other up off the ground, knocked down by the earthshaking fall.  
  
Dean held out his gun, scanning for the ghost that was making the EMF meter buzz a warning screech.  
  
Jacob could feel adrenaline picking up speed in his system. His limbs were already like springs, and he was prepared to bolt if he needed to. Even without the EMF meter and the chills alerting to the clear presence of a spirit, that bedframe falling was enough to have him on edge. The ground had practically bucked underneath him and Sam to knock them over. The impact could have broken Dean's legs easily.  
  
Thankfully, he was crouched nearby, no more injured than he'd been before. At most, he was primed for another attempt on his life by the spirit as they all looked around. No apparitions became apparent.  
  
Until Jacob glanced down. Instead of looking up at human height for a human sized ghost, his gaze flitted only momentarily to the archway into the bathroom alcove. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things.  
  
It was someone their size. Or, it seemed to be, until they _flickered._ "Guys, the ghost isn't a human," Jacob yelled, pointing at the spirit without looking to see if they'd already noticed. He was just in time for the ghost to scowl and disappear from sight, only to reappear near the stack of chairs.  
  
The spirit looked to be a young woman no older than Dean, and of course stood under four inches tall. Her rage was as great as any human's could be, and the top chairs practically buzzed against each other as they shook from her influence.  
  
She glared up at Dean. "See how _you_ like it!"  
  
“What the…” There was no time for questions or confusion at facing down a ghost the size of his pinkie. Dean dove forward, sweeping Sam and Jacob off the floor into one hand while he aimed his shotgun with the other. He needed them out of danger, out of the way of the wide range gunshots.  
  
With a massive boom, the salt shot out of the barrel, scattering the air around the small ghost. She vanished with a shriek, the air around her warping with her dispersion. Dean heaved a sigh, adrenaline buzzing through his body at the close call. He said a silent thanks that it had gone for him and not the other two. They might not have been able to get out of the way in time.  
  
He pulled his hand away from his stomach, accidentally sending the other two tumbling on the moving hand. “You two okay?” Dean lifted them up, green eyes meticulously checking them over to make sure he hadn’t injured them in his quick movements.  
  
Jacob pushed himself to a seated position on Dean's hand, his own arms shaky. He let the dizziness wear off before he tried to speak, lest stammer out nonsense after the rapid movements. He didn't recall ever moving so quickly in his life, and he certainly hadn't been smushed up against Dean's stomach before.  
  
With the gunshot ringing in his ears, he gave Dean a thumbs up. "All good here. How's that for some target practice?" he quipped. He wasn't sure why, but he'd never considered that one of the smaller folk could leave behind a spirit. He shouldn't be surprised; they were people just the same as humans. The only difference was their size.  
  
It was lucky they'd spotted her in time. Even if Dean managed to keep dodging the falling furniture, he could have been trapped in the room. The spirit could amass enough energy to start really throwing things around in an attempt to crush the human.  
  
It painted a clear and melancholy picture of how the woman must have died. It was so easy for a human to overlook them. Someone could have knocked something over or put down their bag or even taken a wrong step and snuffed out an entire person. It wouldn't take much for a spirit to become angry about that and start exacting revenge.  
  
It also explained why the motel itself didn't have many incidents. The spirit wouldn't be going after her family and friends. She'd make sure they were safe even while she attacked the humans that she thought had wronged her.  
  
“I have a feeling we’re gonna want to talk to Oscar again,” Sam said as he pushed himself up next to Jacob. “He’s lived here all his life, if anyone knows who’d died recently out of the people in the walls…”  
  
“...It’ll be him,” Dean finished. “Guess it’s a good thing we found him in the room, then.” He scowled at the thought of an innocent girl being crushed to death… and being overlooked because of her size.  
  
Now that she was dropping bodies, they’d have to take her out like any other spirit.   
  
Sam nodded. “With any luck, he’ll know where she was buried. _If_ she was buried.” There was always a chance that her body might not have been noticed, or it had been swept out like a rodent. He prayed that wasn’t the case, because there would be almost no chance of finding her.  
  
Jacob winced. It would be harsh enough to find out someone had been crushed by the carelessness of the humans around, but to have to figure out a way to dispose of the body? He realized he'd never thought of that since being cursed, and yet it was something he may have had to do someday.  
  
"Hopefully he'll know," Jacob echoed with a nod. They needed to put that spirit to rest. She'd died alone and in pain and scared, and her spirit was reacting to it violently. Once they found what happened to her, she could move on and people would be safe from further attacks.  
  
They made it back to the room quickly enough to regroup and to wait for Oscar. Since he would have to make the trip back on his own, they knew they had some time to kill, but the research was no longer of any use. They knew who had died but it was up to their small informant to get them along the next step in the case.  
  


* * *

  
Oscar trudged through his passages in the wall a little over an hour later, his shoulders slumped and his heart heavy. He hadn't heard about Caroline's death until today, but when he heard about _what_ had happened he'd been able to put the pieces together quickly.  
  
One of the employees of the motel, moving furniture in that extra room, had shoved something out of the way without a second thought. Caroline, in the room looking for smaller dropped supplies, hadn't stood a chance and was injured by the moving structure. She'd barely managed to drag herself painfully back into a vent before she expired, and that was where her family found her.  
  
Just like that, she was _gone._  
  
Oscar had known her for years. He didn't get many opportunities to speak with her, because of his distance across the motel, and now he never would. He'd left all the bread he collected in his bag with her family as a meager condolence for the loss, even though it had happened months ago. He was better late than never.  
  
By the time he slipped out of the wall into the room where he knew the strangest three brothers he'd ever met would be waiting, he was looking downtrodden indeed. He hadn't bothered to avoid the dustier parts of the walls, and had some dust clinging to his clothes and hair. He brushed it off to delay greeting the others for a few seconds longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They need to get Dean away from the spirit, ASAP
> 
> **Last:** March 5 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


	11. Sunset Over Knights Inn

Sam kicked a foot against the table, sending one of the papers under his feet sliding a few inches. He contemplated using the laptop, but for the first time since they’d started traveling with Dean, he wasn’t in the mood.  
  
The room was silent aside from the occasional shifting from Dean. He was stretched out on the bed, flipping through the channels on the TV with the mute on. No one wanted to shatter the silence, heavy thoughts on their minds.  
  
Even the _thought_ of someone being crushed in a careless action was enough to bring the mood down to an all-time low between the brothers. Especially for Dean. He might not be in any danger of being crushed himself unless a spirit or a car accident got to him, but the image of him making one wrong move and injuring or killing Sam or Jacob wouldn’t leave his mind.  
  
So he was stretched out on the bed, keeping away from the floor. Doing his best to keep his mind away from tiny, innocent people dying because of one second’s inattention.  
  
Jacob sat not far from Sam, propped up on his hands with his legs stretched out in front of him. It was plain to any of them why Dean had retreated to the bed. It reminded him of his first hours knowing Dean.  
  
Jacob, trapped under a vase at the time, had thought Dean was just lounging around at his leisure because he didn't need to worry about his captive escaping. In reality, the seasoned hunter was contemplating a deeper issue, trying to collect his thoughts. Jacob wondered if the same was going on now. After what they'd discovered ... he couldn't blame him.  
  
He was drawn out of heavy thoughts of his own when a glimmer of metal soared into view. He recognized Oscar's safety pin as it caught on the edge of the table and pulled himself to his feet. The little guy had managed to escape their notice until he emerged from under the dresser to climb up. Jacob approached the edge to wait for him to clamber over the side.  
  
Dean perked up at the sound of a metal clatter. Oscar scaled up the table, heading to where Sam and Jacob waited. The little guy was some ninja, to be able to sneak around as well as he did without being noticed.  
  
As Oscar reached the top of the table, Dean pulled himself up off the bed, carefully swinging his legs off the side. After what they’d seen during the past hour, each step was measured on his trip back to the table. He pulled the chair out just as carefully and sat down, keeping to himself as best as he could. At around twenty times Oscar’s size, it was hard.  
  
Sam stood as Dean folded his arms on the table, walking over to Jacob and Oscar. “Good to see you made it back,” he greeted, breaking the silence in his own softspoken way.  
  
Oscar brushed off one last speck of dust he'd missed before nodding absently. "I made it back as quick as I could. We ... we all heard a loud noise and felt some shaking? Was that ...?" His voice trailed off but his expression continued to invite explanation, his brow pinched in concern. At least Dean was clearly not crushed, so nothing completely terrible could have befallen them.  
  
Jacob nodded. "Yeah, we, uh. We found the spirit that's been causing stuff to fall on people," he answered gently. Judging by the melancholy look on Oscar's face, he also knew the interesting detail about their ghost. "She tried to knock a bed frame and some chairs on Dean."  
  
Oscar looked down at his shoes thoughtfully. "Yeah. That was Caroline. She was in there a few months back apparently and something was ... um." He couldn't bring himself to say it, and when he looked back up, his eyes were watery. He didn’t even need to know the woman very well for her death to affect him. She was one of the only people he knew at all. "She made it all the way back to the walls but no one found her in time."  
  
“I’m sorry, Oscar,” Sam said quietly. He put a hand on the smaller man’s shoulder, squeezing it in support. “It’s not her fault she’s doing this. She’s scared, and frustrated, and trapped. Lashing out at the people she blames for her death.” He wrapped his arm around Oscar’s shoulders, surprised at how thin the little guy was even now. “We’re here to put her to rest.”  
  
Oscar nodded. "Yeah. She's earned a rest," he agreed. All he could remember was how hard working the woman used to be. How carefully she planned her every move. Oscar had met her once or twice, and they were as close as he got to friends. She didn't deserve what happened to her.  
  
Then again, even though they were big and scary, the humans she'd attacked didn't deserve what they got either. It was no one's fault that the smaller folk had to live in such conditions, hidden away just in case the wrong human took advantage of their size.  
  
"Oscar ... in order to help her, we need to know where her body is. Can you help us out with that?" Jacob cut in quietly, his own demeanor softened to one of comfort and solidarity. Oscar had already looked small before, but now that he'd just heard of the death of one of the few people he knew, he seemed to have shrunk further into himself.  
  
Oscar looked up, first at Jacob, then at Sam, and finally at Dean. There was only sincerity on their faces. He wasn't sure what they needed to do, but they clearly knew what they were doing. He nodded. "If you go back to room 3 I can show you ... well I can show you two at least," he answered, indicating Jacob and Sam.  
  
Sam nodded, giving his shoulder one last squeeze of support. “Then that’s where we’ll go,” he said, glancing up at Dean.  
  
With the older hunter’s help, Sam, Jacob and Oscar once again hid in his pocket. The two smaller brothers did their best to make sure the little guy wasn’t jostled at all on the journey, swaying strides rocking them steadily back and forth. In no time at all, Dean was lowering them all to the ground.  
  
This time, Oscar didn’t get off on his own. Sam stepped down first, glancing around at the room that towered above them. “Lead the way,” he said, clapping a hand on Oscar’s back as he joined Sam on the floor.  
  
Oscar let out a surprised puff of air, but didn't otherwise react to the clap on his back. He glanced back up at Dean, seeing the somber look there. A human, sad over the loss of someone so small that he never even met... Oscar realized that it took a really good person to think that way.  
  
Not that he'd ever be _glad_ he got grabbed off the ground, but he was at least glad it was someone like the man that had carried him twice now in a pocket without trapping him.  
  
"Okay. Well. Let's go," he said to the other two, leading the way towards his entrance to the walls. He glanced back a lot, unused to being in a group at all, let alone being the leader of one.  
  
When they reached the loose block of wood under the room's dresser that pulled away like a thick door, he strained against it for a moment. Jacob stepped forward to help and, much to Oscar's surprise, wrenched the door open with just one hand like it was on a hinge. Then they were in the dark.  
  
A brief walk and a short climb down a passageway to put them under the floor later, and they arrived at the scene. It was far enough away from anyone's homes that the smell clinging to the air wouldn't disturb those who remained living. Getting Caroline outside, not to mention taking the time to dig into the earth to bury her, was too dangerous.  
  
Instead, her body was carefully wrapped in plastic from an old bag, with some cloth too. Shards of broken drywall and wood and other detritus was arranged around her in the closest mimic of a coffin any of them could make. Oscar's face twisted into a frown at the sight; he'd never been down here before.  
  
"What do you need to do now?" he whispered, as if disturbing the air might call the floorboards down on their heads.  
  
“We need to get her to Dean,” Sam said, his voice equally hushed with respect. “It’s not safe to burn a body inside the walls; there’s too much of a possibility that the motel catches fire with her. Dean can take us outside, where it’s safe to start a fire.” Even the smallest flame hitting the drywall could send the entire place up. It would wipe out all of the small people living there. Even with Dean nearby they’d have a hard time escaping before the flames spread too far, and no one else would have any warning.  
  
Sam walked over to one end of the reverently wrapped body and glanced at Jacob. “You get the legs and I’ll get the shoulders?” he asked quietly, ready to lift her up.  
  
Oscar's eyes widened while Jacob nodded and went over to help Sam move the wrapped up body of someone he knew. A body that didn't have anyone in it anymore and that probably looked gruesome beyond repair under all that wrapping.  
  
_Burn her. They have to burn her._ He wasn't prepared to argue with them, but the thought still left his stomach queasy as he turned to lead the way back out of the gloomy passages.  
  
_I'm sorry, Caroline._  
  


* * *

  
They found a tree.  
  
It wasn’t far from the motel, but it was in a secluded area. No windows faced towards them, giving the brothers the privacy to finish their grim job.  
  
With everyone in one hand, keeping hold of the wrapped up corpse, Dean carefully scooped a hand in the earth, clearing a large enough hole to serve as Caroline’s makeshift grave. Sam and Jacob stood back as he carefully grasped her corpse, laying her down in the divot.  
  
Dean let the others off his hand in the grass next to his knees, freeing him up so he could finish the job. A pinch of salt was all it took, and a drop of lighter fluid. He lit up the match, pausing.  
  
“I’m sure she’ll be happier now,” Dean said gently to Oscar. “She won’t be trapped anymore. Even as a vengeful spirit she did her best to keep her friends and family safe.” He let the match fall, sending the small gravesite up in a bright spark.  
  
Oscar blinked owlishly as he saw flames for the first time in his life. He might have been fascinated if the fire wasn't quickly bigger than him, consuming one of the few friends he had in the world. It wasn't like he could go out and make more, even if he was a social person.  
  
He had dark circles forming under his eyes despite sleeping much of the afternoon away. It was hard to believe so much had happened to him in the course of one day. He started the morning with pure fear, thinking his entire life was being taken away from him one way or another.  
  
And then had come the confusion, when Dean let him go, and didn't try to trap him when he came back again. Then the sorrowful news about Caroline, and the loud noises from room 1... he hadn't wanted to believe it.  
  
He couldn’t deny the evidence burning in front of him. Hopefully her spirit could rest now, like they said. Oscar brushed at his eyes with his fingertips, clearing a few tears that had formed there.  
  
"Thanks for helping her," Oscar told them, his quiet voice even softer. "I never thought I'd meet a human that helped one of us." He knew they'd been drawn here because of the humans dying; it was far more noticeable than one small person fading away, alone in the dark. And yet none of them had judged Caroline for lashing out. They seemed to understand.  
  
Dean glanced over at the other man, spotting the slump in his shoulders. The feeling was one that he knew all too well after losing Sam so long ago… Oscar just didn’t have the chance he’d ever find his friend again. He had closure, but it was painful and heartbreaking closure.  
  
Wanting to offer what support he could, Dean reached out a hand. He almost stopped when he saw just how big his fingers were compared to Oscar, but that shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t _have_ to matter, even though it did. People died, just because they were smaller.  
  
Dean lightly touched a finger against Oscar’s shoulder. “Just because you’re smaller, Oz, doesn’t give anyone the right to treat you any different. Never let anyone tell you otherwise, no matter what happens, okay?”  
  
Oscar turned his head sharply. His eyes were wide as he glanced over the fingertip that barely grazed his shoulder. It didn't weigh him down or push him over like he might expect out of such a large digit. Dean was careful enough to offer Oscar support despite the size difference between them. It revealed a lot about the man, even without the words he said.  
  
"Y-yeah," he replied, looking back at the gravesite without shrugging away from the supportive touch. If they were going treat him the same regardless of his size, he could try to return the favor. It was strange to have a fingertip bigger than his head resting on one shoulder, but he appreciated what it meant anyway.  
  
"And, y'know, we're not the only ones who helped her, Oscar," Jacob added in, feeling it needed to be said. Oscar had contributed a lot to their case, helping them wrap it up before anyone else got hurt. Without him, Sam and Jacob might have spent days combing the motel for the small body. "You led us right to her. You helped Caroline, too."  
  
Oscar blinked at him, letting the information sink in. It did offer him some small relief. Even though he, like the others, couldn't be there to help her or comfort her when she died, Oscar had helped her now.  
  
The small fire soon burned down. Dean covered up the gravesite, scooping the earth over the ashen remains of Oscar’s friend. It was a peaceful area for her to rest in, far more soothing than the dark corners of the motel where the people of _Knights Inn_ normally laid their dead to rest.  
  
With Caroline put to rest and the case over, Dean took the others in hand one last time to get back to the room. Even Oscar, so timid and skittish, was beginning to get used to the unusual mode of transportation they’d found in the human hunter.  
  
They left her remains alone under the dappled sunlight as the sun dipped towards the horizon.  
  


* * *

  
Once they were back to the room, it was clear to everyone that Oscar needed to go and sleep off the day he'd just had. Too much excitement had combined with the sorrowful news to completely wipe out the little guy, and he was stifling a yawn before Dean even lowered his three passengers to the table.  
  
They didn't let him go without first insisting he stuff his little cloth bag with more bread. After what he'd done to help them, he'd earned as much food as he could carry. More than that, but he didn't have an easy way to get it home.  
  
Before he slipped into the walls, Dean insisted he take a card with his number on it just in case. The card was almost as wide as Oscar was tall, and it was cumbersome for him to carry, but Dean wasn't about to be dissuaded. Jacob was glad that the little guy at least seemed to be past his terror of Dean; only his natural timid nature was showing through as Dean handed off the card.  
  
The case was solved a lot faster than any of the brothers could have predicted, thanks to Oscar. They settled down to watch some TV for the night, Dean stretched out on the bed (begrudgingly removing his boots after a scathing look from Sam) and the other two on the comforter nearby.  
  
While Dean flipped through the channels, Jacob glanced over his face. He'd had a somber look to him most of the day, especially after they realized who the vengeful spirit was and what had happened to her. Jacob frowned faintly and nudged Sam with his elbow. Nodding towards Dean, he asked in a soft voice "Is it just me or does he look really bummed?"  
  
Sam glanced over where Jacob indicated, and frowned in turn. “You’re right,” he said, following along. Jacob wasn’t the only one that had noticed Dean acting… off… ever since realizing how the girl had died. Alone… unnoticed… just because a human wasn’t paying attention.  
  
Dean always took things to heart, even if it wasn’t his fault. Now, he had spent the entire day as the only human around with three people smaller than his hand. Probably wondering why they even trusted him to carry them, after seeing what other humans had done.  
  
Sam sighed, keeping his voice down so only the two of them could hear. “Guess we’ll just have to cheer him up then.” A determined glint was in his eyes.  
  
Dean didn’t notice them until Sam scaled over his arm, using the thick threads of the flannel shirt to pull himself up. “What the hell are you doing?” he hissed in surprise, eyes going even wider when he noticed Jacob following.  
  
Sam gave a shrug, walking himself to the center of Dean’s chest before sitting down with a plop. “We didn’t want to leave you out of the exciting commentary we have on the channels you're flipping through, so we figured we’d chill up here.”  
  
"Yup." Jacob sat down near Sam with a smirk. Dean's surprised look was worth the climb all by itself. As they rose and fell with Dean's breath, and his heartbeat plodded away beneath them, Jacob made himself comfortable. Once he was propped back on his hands, he looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Don't think we didn't notice you lingering on Dr. Sexy," he chided. His teasing grin widened. "We gotta keep an eye on you."  
  
Dean's mouth quirked up for a brief second at the tease, but quickly fell. “I thought you'd both want some space, after what happened earlier. I mean, that girl and the crushing and then what I am…”  
  
“Dean,” Sam interrupted him in the middle of his protest. “You said it yourself earlier. We're not gonna treat you any different just because you're bigger. You're still _Dean,_ and we still trust you. What happened to her was tragic… but we all know how careful you are. And besides.” Sam kicked out his feet, getting comfortable. “I kinda like sitting front row up here.”  
  
A small smile worked its way onto Dean's face during Sam's small speech. A warmth grew in his chest, right under where they were casually sitting. “Thanks, guys,” he said softly. That gesture of trust meant everything to him after what they'd seen that day.  
  
Dean let himself sink into his pillows, flipping the TV back to _Dr. Sexy._ “I think I'll take you up on that show,” he snarked gamely at Jacob, feeling his normal self start to resurface.  
  
**FIN**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bittersweet end, but all has been laid to rest...
> 
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> **Brothers Consulted** won the poll, so look for **The Study of the Four** , starting this Wednesday!

**Author's Note:**

> And we return to Dean and his small pair of brothers! 
> 
> Even hunters need to do chores, which means a trip to the laundry mat! While Dean sits around cooling his heels, Sam and Jacob adventure.
> 
>  **Next:** February 12 th, 2017 at 9pm est.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


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